Cutting Water
by NessieGG
Summary: In Tang Dynasty China, the House of Long fights to protect their way of life from the Uchiha clan. Hyuuga Neji of Japan is sent to assist them and finds a secret war, a deception to the Empress, and a woman unlike any he has known. [AU][NejiTen, SasuSaku]
1. Water Dragon

**Author's Introduction**_: Hello! For those of you that have read my Naruto fan fiction before, I should warn you that this will be different in that this is a Historical AU set mainly in China but will also feature Japan. This fic was a challenge set forth by the Neji x Tenten FC. This fic will contain multiple chapters and include alternate pairings and well as canon, possible love triangles (we'll see!) and general romantic confusion – all during a feud between rather untraditional clans. But hopefully I'll manage to clear everything up by the end._

_I admit that my knowledge on historic China is limited and I am learning as I go, so I will be taking artistic license with history and Asian tradition. I hope that doesn't offend anyone! Honestly, for the most part I won't be mentioning historic events because I would probably mess up. :P _

_This fic will contain mild sexual content later on as well as violence, so please heed the Teen rating. _

_Lastly, I will warn everyone that I am a student and thus in the middle of classes as well as extracurricular activities and work, so updates are just as likely to be slow as fast, depending on time and inspiration. Please don't be upset with me if I need a break._

_And if you read all of that you get a cookie! Thank you for your patience, and please enjoy the story. _

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfiction.

**Cutting Water**

By Nessie

_China. Zhou (Tang) Dynasty. 740 A.D._

Moonlight arced through the thick canopy of a country forest, sending shafts of light between tree trunks that provided perfect cover. A lock of pale hair fell in front of dark eyes as clouds rolled between an armed man and the waxing crescent above. When the moon was revealed once again, the grey stone of a mighty wall could be seen, stretching up so as to greet the heavens but not higher the canopy.

And this was it, the hidden man mused. This bland rock was the fortress of the House of Long, one of China's most honored families? A faint smirk materialized on his otherwise emotionless face. Perhaps his lord had overestimated his target. Even from ten feet away, it was possible to find several footholds in the stone that would allow him simple access to the top of the wall, and if there were things to grip on one side, there would also be some on the other side.

Stealing into the wide compound before him would be too easy a task. Setting a hand on his hip, the pale-haired hider felt the weight of his sheathed sword. Murder, however, would be even more effortless. Yet he would act otherwise, upon his return, telling his lord how closely-lost his triumph had been and how the blood that would soon coat his blade was hard won.

A night bird called, and the smirk became a grin. With the scaling of an unimpressive fortress for what was sure to be a meager compound, he would rise in ranks and favor among his own, and when he was as close to the top as he could manage without trickery, he would do to his lord what he was about to do to the leader of the Long clan. And it would be hethat was undisputed, as he never had been in his life, _he _that was respected and adored, with his hands so full of power that it would overflow like a pond during a rainstorm.

And when he was at that point, he would look back and remember that all of it had begun with this ugly stone wall.

The moon became clouded again, hindering him, but he went forth in spite of it. Was it not right that he start his legacy in darkness? Arriving at the wall, he reached out—

But never touched it.

Pressure was felt in his lower back, something he quickly identified to be the point of a sword. He dropped his arm to unsheathe his own weapon, but the pressure intensified when his hand fell upon the hilt. He was pricked and felt blood trickle down the flesh covering his spine, and he opted for making no more sudden moves before the threat was removed.

"It is too calm a night for a battle," he murmured, hoping that his strange choice of words would confuse his opponent enough to give him a window of opportunity.

"Calm nights like this," came the response, "are my favorite for staining the earth with blood." The voice was low but not deep enough to be male. "Just what have we here?" And then he felt a jerk when the enemy hand not holding a sword at his back pulled down on his collar. The front of the collar came up to his throat, choking him slightly, but then— "Uchiha. I expected nothing less. Your lord makes the mistake of sending his most useless spy to infiltrate my home, and there will be consequences for that."

At first, the spy had been relieved to know that it was only a woman trying to apprehend him. But the way she said _consequences _gave him second thoughts, and he suddenly wished to see her face – and how well she performed with a blade.

"Useless, am I?" he muttered.

But then, another voice met his ears and, as with the woman, he had not detected the presence. "Well, not entirely useless. Perhaps." This voice was undoubtedly male, strong and even pompous in its tone. "Though I hesitate to think Uchiha will have given this underling very much information for us to go by."

"Even so," added yet _another _voice (the spy was now experiencing slight panic at the growing number of enemies), "would it not be wasteful to kill him at this moment?" This voice was very similar to the previous one, if a little higher.

The woman gave a small exhale, only audible to the spy because she was so near to him. "Yes, you're correct." With this, the pressure of her sword's point went away, and the spy swiftly pivoted. A foot wasted no time in kicking his legs out from beneath him, and he fell to his knees.

Again the moon was exposed, and he came face to face with his captor.

A woman of average height and lean build stood before him, her head angled downward in order to get a proper look at him. Her features were nearly expressionless in her analysis of him; a strong jaw remained set beneath eyes the color of damp wood. Her hair, only a bit darker than that, she wore in tight buns atop her head.

After several wordless moments, she lifted a dark eyebrow and tapped the flat of her sword against her shoulder in contemplation. The motion distracted him, and he caught sight of the faintest line of blood – his blood – upon the steel. How ironic, for he now realized that it was supposed to have been _her _blood upon _his _sword.

At last, when he thought the weight of her continuous silence would crush him, she said evenly, "The face of an Uchiha spy is truly quite disappointing. I was sure that there might have been at least a _trace_ of competence."

He sucked in, about to spit at her, but her hand fell fast upon his mouth, fingers digging into the hollows of his cheeks. He made a pathetic sound of pain; her grip was bruising. Now her face was within mere inches of his, her brown eyes large and defiant. And finally she broke out with a grin that held more victory than mirth; it was easy to tell just by this that this woman was used to winning. "Do not try to disgrace _me_. China has already been shamed just by bearing your fool clan." Her voice positively dripped with a queer mixture of disgust for him and pride for her country.

"My lady. What shall we do with him?" asked the deep-voiced man who, now that the spy could see him, was significantly older than the other man, yet the two looked nearly identical.

She drew away then, and brushed at her sword on the grass at her feet. Stowing the blade in a sheath on her back, and turned to her older companion. "Lock him in the west block. That way he will know that the sun is setting over him. _And _his clan."

The spy could only watch her begin away as the older man laid an iron grip on him and hauled him up. There was now a door on the wall, one he had not seen even with the moon lighting it, and he saw her pause before entering the compound. "Lee."

"My lady?" replied the younger man.

"Tell Kiba and Shino that I am assigning them to meet our guest tomorrow. He will be arriving on the afternoon ship."

"Of course," Lee answered. As the woman disappeared into the compound, he turned his eyes to his look-alike comrade and asked, "Is she pleased that he is coming, Gai-shi fu?"

The elder man named Gai, Lee's teacher, gave a smile, poorly seen in the dim light but seen nonetheless. "She is not sure yet. But all of us know that he _must _come." He turned a black gaze upon the spy he restrained. "Be wary of this guest, for he is the one that will cause the sun to set upon your entire clan."

The spy spit successfully this time. "We have dealt with those who have tried."

"He shall bring the sunset," Gai repeated, ignoring his retort. "And my lady shall bring the dawn."

---

_The day before._

It was Hyuuga Neji who faced the dawn on Japan's easternmost shore. All around him, sailors were scurrying to finish the final preparations on the ship that would, in a matter of minutes, be taking him to China. The salty breeze whipped at the loose folds of his clothing as sea spray dampened the dock on which he stood, waiting for the signal to board.

He was being watched and knew it, and when he could take it no longer he turned to confront the pair of green eyes with his own unusual white ones. "You've no need to look at me so, Sakura."

Haruno Sakura held a hand up to block her cherry hair as it flew around her face with the morning wind. Her eyes were worried, as they often were, and the hand not protecting her face was held in a tight fist at her stomach. She shook her head and gave him a small, less-than-genuine smile. "Yes, I do." To her, the man with a haversack slung over his shoulder was more than a branch-house son from the honored Hyuuga clan of eastern Japan. And she…she could only hope that she was as much to him. "Neji, did your uncle tell you how long you will be gone?"

"No," he replied briskly. He noticed it when her eyes dropped to her feet and told himself not to feel sorry for it. Neji was a man of twenty, one who believed that honesty was absolutely necessary. And it was because of this belief that he continued with, "Sakura…you should not wait for me."

He had expected the stereotypical female reaction; tears, pleas, the kind of thing they heard as children from story telling old women. Sakura responded with neither. Rather, her smile became sincere and she stepped closer to him. She placed a hand modestly upon the wrist he kept by his side, next to the sheath of his sword. "And yet I will," she murmured to him, then took her hand away as was proper, clutching at her heart with it.

He decided it would not hurt to question her. "Why?"

"I choose to. I will study. I will learn the ways of a healer, and I will make myself useful to you."

Neji was unsure of how to reply to the heartfelt words. She was only a year younger than him but still seemed so much like a girl, wearing her heart on her sleeve. He averted his gaze to the golden sun that was now rising above deep waters growing bluer by the second. "I must ask you to keep my cousin company when her father goes away. She often becomes lonely."

"I will protect Lady Hinata for you, Neji," answered Sakura, who understands right away the hidden meaning in his words. Though it was a fact that Neji held no true conviction for his cousin, for though Neji's uncle Hyuuga Hiashi was without sons, he had still decided that Hinata – not Neji – take leadership of the House of Hyuuga upon her marriage. Bitterness still governed most of Neji's heart. And try as she might, Sakura had so far been unsuccessful in changing that.

"Hyuuga-sama!" Both of them turned to see a middle-aged sailor waving from the ship's boarding plank, beckoning to Neji. "We will leave when you say so."

Neji turned back to her but Sakura spoke first. "There is no sense in wasting time."

"I'll help them, those family members of Long." Sudden determination had entered Neji's eyes, but Sakura knew it was from the need to prove himself rather than from any actual desire to be of assistance. "When their enemy is defeated, I will return."

He turned away and walked toward the ship. Sakura felt a part of her reaching out, wishing to grab him. She could not remember a time when she had been without Neji, and now...

The boarding plank was pulled, the sails were dropped, and then the ship was floating away from the dock, toward the sun. Neji looked back at Sakura only once, knowing things had been left unsaid. When the ship was too far out for him to see her any longer, he faced the distant horizon. His gaze was more piercing than the morning chill of the water.

What experiences would China hold for him, he wondered. Could his fate there be any more meaningful than the one that awaited him in Japan? Well-developed pessimism told him it was unlikely.

And yet there was always that one part of him, the piece of his will that life's cruelties had not been able to spoil, that dared to hope. And that part was waiting.

---

The storm struck at midnight. Unforeseen from the south, gales rocked the ship and its occupants with earthquake force, and it was all the sailors could do to keep the ship on course. Neji did as he must, staying out of the way and letting the trained men do their frantic work. Water pounded the sides of the ship and hundreds of frigid raindrops stabbed the Hyuuga's flesh like needles, the sheets of water so thick that it was nearly impossible to see four feet in front of him.

He kept a strong grip on only his sword, which he had triple-tied to his right leg. The storm's wicked wrath broke chunks of wood off the mast, seen clearly only when lightning cracked the death-dark sky. The shouts of the sailors were lost to the wind, ruining communication.

It was when Neji noticed all of the sailors stopping dead in their tracks and facing the prow that Neji too turned…and he saw the tidal wave, larger than any he had seen in his life. The entire crew had frozen, knowing any more effort was useless and that their end was inevitable. In the seconds that the wall of water started to arc and then fall, Neji had only one thought.

It was a dragon. A cold, vicious, man-hungry water dragon.

But Neji never had the chance to feel the massive wave hit. A large plank of wood tore off from the starboard side and beat into the back of his neck. His world went dark before the dragon feasted.

In China, a woman prevented a spy of the Uchiha clan from entering the Long compound and destroying their way of life, while Hyuuga Neji was tossed by the Asian sea – toward her.

_To Be Continued…_


	2. Driftwood

**Author's Notes: **_I just wanted to point out that, after some well-aimed advice from Mellifluence (thank you!), I've changed the setting of _Cutting Water _from the Qing Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty. Some history: The Zhou Dynasty was an interruption of the Tang Dynasty in China. Zhou Dynasty refers to the rule by Empress Wu Ze Tian (who proclaimed herself as Emperor Shensheng), China's one and only female ruler in her own right to date. I did originally have a purpose for setting it in the Qing Dynasty, but it was not so large as to effect the entire story, and chapter two was still early enough to make the change. Thanks for understanding._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Two

By Nessie

Three horses made their way out of a wood dense with foliage, emerging to come upon a quiet beach. The stallions whinnied and tossed their manes as their treaded upon the pure white sand, kicking up pale clouds in their wake. There were only two riders that were greeted by the low tide that foamed along the shore, and both of them frowned through the fog that the midday sun had not yet burned away.

The shore should not have been so peaceful. The men had expected work noise to disturb the area, crude shouts of seamen or servants' grumbled complaints. But there was only the screeching of gulls high above their nickering horses.

One man in a high-collared garment and glasses as dark as his hair turned to his companion. "If they're late, we should inform Gai-shi fu. He'll tell—"

"And if they're wrecked?" questioned the other, his oddly-marked cheeks puffing as he released an irritated exhale. This man had an air of recklessness about him, and sitting with him on his horse was a scruffy, light-colored dog that peered out as intently as he. "According to Lee, that means some damn bad news for us, Shino."

Shino did not reply. His eyes had settled on an object in the distance. From his vantage point, it appeared to be nothing more than a shapeless mass, but he reached out to take the other horse's reins from his friend. "Go back, Kiba. Say I shall be along shortly."

Kiba, too, had found the mist-enshrouded figure with his sharp eyes. "Fine," he muttered, rubbing the top of his dog's head as he turned his horse around. "Come, Akamaru." The mutt gave a parting bark as they went away.

Left alone, Shino guided both remaining horses toward the mysterious shadow – which he now knew to be a body – that held his attention. He dismounted a few feet away, approaching with the caution that life had reared him with. Nearing, he saw that the man's eyes were opened a crack, and Shino's jaw tightened. When he was close enough to touch the motionless man on the ground, wet from the tide lapping over him again and again, he immediately sprung up.

Water sprayed like scattered gemstones as long hair flew into the air. In the one swift movement, the man Shino had feared to be dead was on his feet and drew his sword with unbelievable speed. He took a stance, and the blade glinted blindingly from the available sunlight, casting a devilish golden streak that slanted across the eyes of who Shino now knew to be—

"Hyuuga Neji." With the forming of his name, the man's eyes lost _some_ of their ferocity but far from all. Instead, a peculiar calmness entered his features, most likely from the realization that the stranger held no weapon. His coal-dark hair hung in dripping snarls to the middle of his back, and there was a strip of seaweed wrapped around his left wrist dangling almost comically. Shino, however, was not amused by it, even though the height of his collar would never have revealed a smile.

"I…" The sea-washed youth swallowed twice, his pearl-like eyes wide as he panted. "I am…"

"Most assuredly alive," supplied Shino when it seemed the Japanese man's voice had failed. "You will know me as Long Shino. I have come to meet you and take you to the compound. Here, I've a horse for your use." He assisted Neji in mounting, tearing the seaweed from his wrist. Neji never sheathed his sword but simply stared, dazed, at whatever was in front of him.

"How did you know," managed the soaked rider once the sand gave way to rich dirt and the sky was mainly obscured by trees, "that I am Hyuuga Neji?"

From behind the fabric of his collar, Shino gave a wistful upturn of lips. "With all of the ill fate the clan of Long has endured, it would be heartless gods that took you away as well."

Neji made no reply to the cryptic statement but rode in wordlessness, shifting awkwardly in his saddle. He appeared nearly catatonic.

"Does the sight of China unsettle you?"

"No." Neji's grip visibly tightened on his reins. "I have been here before…right _here_." A strange note was in his tone, reflecting something outside of Shino's recognition. Neji turned his eyes skyward, and neither man spoke more.

The further they rode, the more Neji experienced a mind-numbing feeling of…nostalgia? Déjà vu? He could recall this very pathway from years ago…the slim road worn now by hooves, wheels, and feet had then been newer, and the trees that would be easily scalable by a man his age had once appeared too tall for a small boy of five to reach. Then, Neji had not ridden alone but on the lap of a man who, unlike him, had not survived to travel through this path again on his way home.

"_This is a place of greatness. There are thing here in China to be protected. Don't you think so, Neji?"_

As the sun rose higher, beams of golden light slanted through the trees growing ever thicker. "We're nearly there," murmured Shino after a time, "but my clan cannot afford to take any chances." He presented a slip of indigo silk. A moment passed, and then Neji paused, finally sheathing his sword, and leaned over obligingly so that the bespectacled man could secure the blindfold over his eyes.

The rest of the journey Neji spent in quiet darkness, with only the steady rhythm of the horses' hooves and birdsong to break the silence. At last, Shino instructed Neji to halt his mount in addition to saying he could remove his blindfold. The sight of the Long compound was as the trail leading to it had been; unseen and yet vaguely familiar to Neji, as though the intimidating high stone walls could only barely be reached by his memory's grasping fingers.

"Hyuuga," said Shino. The addressed man gave the smallest of starts. He took something from the pouch at his hip – a mirror, and reflected it toward the top of the wall. "Welcome to China." Almost at once, the wall parted before their eyes. A portion of the barrier that Neji had thought to be stone was truly wood, and two panels were splitting open to allow them inside. Shino rode on first, leading the way.

The compound of the Long clan was the exact opposite of the Hyuuga compound in Japan. The most noticeable difference was that it was brimming with noisy energy. The first specific thing the Hyuuga saw was that three guards were posted on elevated stations all along the inside walls surrounding the compound. The one who had let them in was a cheerful-looking, grandiose man with a mane of bright red hair. He waved to Neji, as did the blond man and a man with a black ponytail on duty with him. Neji averted his gaze.

Small buildings were erected all throughout the vicinity, many of them connected by a shared well of bridge. There were as many as eight community wells and three miniature streams leading to them. Hundreds of small vegetable gardens lines the compound's parameter as well as flower beds that thrived on either side of the main road on which Shino led him. Feeling eyes on him, Neji glanced downward to see family members (he assumed that was what they were) staring up at him unabashedly. There was a bored-looking youth glancing between him and the board game he played with a young man remarkably resembling the grandiose guard. A fair-haired girl tending to one of the flower beds looked particularly interested, and she sent him a flirtatious smile, only to fume when she received no responsive expression.

Neji soon saw that the road led to a building like what he was accustomed to; a grand, oversized mansion that undoubtedly hosted the Long clan's leader. He had entered that place only once before, when he had arrived in China fifteen years ago. Carvings of serpent-beasts had been expertly cut into the wood frame of the house, and upon the wide screen of the main entrance, an exquisite, silver-scaled dragon had been painted, his long tail curling about himself as he flew among cloud-encircled mountaintops.

"This is as far as I go," Shino said and Neji took that as a sign to get down from his horse. On the ground again, he was still a little unsteady and waited patiently for instructions. "Enter through the front door there; you will meet an assistant inside."

"Thank you," said Neji, his voice soft as his attention remained on the fantastic house before him. Shino rode off, taking the extra horse, and the Hyuuga branch son wasted no time in doing as he had been told. Sliding back the paper door, he stepped out of his waterlogged shoes and onto the polished wood of the floor inside. The main entrance was not as large as he had somehow suspected, and mainly served as a centered area that lead to a number of other corridors that surely held room after room. None of the noise from the main part of the compound could reach this place. Neji could see no one, and the house was almost eerie in its seeming emptiness. He strode forward, hoping for a glimpse of someone in a hall.

"_Welcooooome_!"

He whirled around, his hand falling without delay upon the hilt of his still-sheathed sword. The man that had so well managed to sneak up behind him grinned from ear to ear, supposedly pleased to see Neji but just as plausibly pleased with himself for startling the newcomer. His eyes were unusually wide beneath a set of impressively thick eyebrows. The glint of his teeth as he smiled was bright enough to make one want to shield one's eyes, and he stood with an overall air of self-confidence about him.

Even though he knew he had no reason for it, Neji immediately felt an extreme wary sort of anxiety about this person. He cast a sense that he had an illness of some kind – one involving an obsession with hunter green clothes, for this man was covered neckline to ankles in them – that would spread if Neji went too close. It was surprising, to say the least. Neji had never been so instantly affected by someone.

"Who _are_ you?" he asked after staring for an amount of time that he felt was sure to be considered rude.

However, the green-clad youth seemed about as offended as a dolphin on a sunny day in the Atlantic. "Introductions, of course!" he exclaimed with undue excitement. "I am Lee of the Long clan. And you are most certainly Hyuuga Neji."

"It seems my personal introduction is unnecessary, as I am the only unfamiliar person here," replied Neji with calm so far contrasting from Lee's zeal that it was almost uncomfortable.

"True," Lee nodded with folded arms, "but that isn't how I knew you. You see, we of the clan were told to watch for one with eyes like the full moon."

This second mention of the clan impressed upon Neji the altogether unlikelihood of Lee being related to anyone else here. In fact, since seeing those within the Long compound, there had been no overall linking resemblance of the people. The blond girl and redheaded man stood out in his mind.

Neji managed to inquire after he managed to stop wondering how on earth someone's teeth could be _that _white, "You are of the same blood as leader Long Tao Huang?"

"Certainly not!" cried Lee with a broad smile, as though this notion was the most ridiculous of notions. "It would have been an honor and privilege to be born his relative, yet fate was not so kind to me. Though let it not be said that I disdain my position in life, for that would be most un-youthful of me!"

"Well-spoken, Lee!" boomed a voice from an adjacent corridor.

Neji again swiveled, this time to see…Lee. Except he was bigger and more muscled and spoke in a rich bass. But this man, whoever he was, had the same hair, teeth, and wildly green clothes as the man who had greeted Neji. _Here _was a resemblance he could call to be from blood.

"Welcome to you, Neji of the Hyuuga clan in Japan!" He went Neji a smile even more dazzling than Lee's. "My, but how the years have flown over my old head. Fifteen summers, and here you stand a man before me. The last of you I remember, you were a crying child setting sail for his grandfather's land."

The familiarity of the voice hit him first after the initial wave of humiliation. Neji had known this man when he had come to China at five years old. "Gai," he tried, hoping memory served. The wide, pleased grin Gai produced was answer enough that he was correct. "You are Gai. You fought beside my father."

"And such a man I will never meet again," assured Gai. "Hizashi could not have brought more honor to you, Neji, nor you to him, for you stand _here_ – his mirror image! Of course, from what I hear, all Hyuugas look very alike," rambled Gai. "But it is the principle of the thing, is it not?"

Lee was practically glowing with delight as he listened to the older man. "Of course, Gai-shi fu!"

"I don't recall you having a son," commented Neji with another look towards Lee. "Were you—" But the double rumble of Lee's and Gai's combined chortles made it impossible for him to finish his question.

"Lee, my son! Sure enough, he is. But not a son as you in the Hyuuga clan would think." Gai lifted a finger. "I tell all who live here, Neji, that there are reasons for devoting yourself to another that go beyond the lines of traditional ties. Long Tao Huang, my most regarded friend and the leader of this clan, asked me personally to see that this Long family is not bound by any patriarch. We share things better than blood." When he received nothing but a perplexed stare from the white-eyed man, Gai let out another barking laugh. "But there is no need to trouble yourself with such depth at this moment. Dusk is falling. As is custom when we have a guest, we will feast tonight. Lee, take this fiery Japanese youth and change his clothes. I dare not ask why you are in such a state for fear of seeing the same bad luck." Gai clapped Lee hard on the back. "Eh, Lee? See that he's ready to meet our most respected leader."

Lee led Neji to a corridor secluded from the rest of the house which seemed to contain only two rooms. They entered the room on the left side of the hallway, and Neji waited until the door was slid shut before asking, "Is he still a serious man?"

"Gai-shi fu?" Bringing him a set of fresh garments from a chest by the window, Lee looked at Neji as if he were naturally an absurdly-minded fellow. "Certainly not! Not when he doesn't need to be. How did he ever manage to make that impression?"

Neji shot him a baleful look and took the clothes from him. "I do not mean Gai. I was referring to your Long Tao Huang. When I saw him as a boy, he was always intense. Solemn."

_Much like you_, Lee thought but did not say so. There was something more important to say. "I do not understand, Hyuuga." He turned away while Neji dressed. "I was informed by those that matter and heard that your uncle, Hyuuga Hiashi, sent you here much the way your grandfather, Hyuuga Haji, sent your father here fifteen years ago."

"That is correct." Neji was at once disconcerted to think that his family history was common knowledge in this compound.

"Then how is it," Lee went on, his brow furrowing, "that you do not know Long Tao Huang is dead?"

Neji's hands halted in retying his sword to his hip. White eyes flew up to the back of a bowl-haired head, but Lee did not turn around. "Dead?"

"I never knew him. I was inaugurated into the Long family quite near to six years before now, but the honorable Long Tao Huang passed away from a weary heart ten winters ago." Glancing over his shoulder, Lee arched his eyebrows. "Did you leave Japan unaware of who you would be serving?"

Neji stood, entirely unsure of what to say or do. Fury was steadily rising inside of him. He had been lied to and made a fool of. His uncle, daft as he was, had not been content to take from him the only worthy prospect his life had held.

"_I wish to announce to the Hyuuga clan's elders that, as I am aging, I will soon be relinquishing control of the clan. It is true that there are no sons for Hyuuga Hiashi to speak of, and this is a personal shame. So I will be passing leadership onto my elder daughter, Hinata, until which time she is wedded and can serve under the leadership of her husband."_

"_Hiashi-sama, why not appoint Neji leader? He is talented enough, and your twin brother's son."_

Neji accepted a comb Lee handed him and proceeded to detangle his hair and make himself presentable for the feast of that evening. The strokes his hand took were more like rough sword slashes, jerking through snarls and knots with curious impatience.

"_This would be a logical course of action. But my nephew Neji is the son of a woman so weak without a husband that she took her own life, and he is the son of a man who died in the barbarian country of China. There is no grave here even for me to remember by brother by, and thus I have no brother…and thus I have no brother's son."_

"Are you prepared?" asked Lee politely when it seemed Neji was disinclined to answer his previous question.

Neji nodded, stepping out of his room with fists balled and eyes piercing.

"_Hizashi left me only a trial…a branch-house urchin who, try as he like, will come to nothing more than his father did – early death and forgotten life."_

He would serve who they showed him. He would live until his service was no longer needed. And Hyuuga Neji would return to Japan and prove to his uncle – to all of the clan who shared his name – that there was a life not soon to be forgotten.

_To Be Continued…_


	3. Tai Na

**Author's Notes**: _Story time, yay! And here be some of the afore-mentioned sexual content…nothing more than basic lime, but please heed the warning. Also, prepare yourself for back-story._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water **

Chapter Three

By Nessie

Beyond the Long compound, in the heart of the thick wood blocking the clan's residence from the outside world, another family struggled to survive on poor land and under poorer conditions. At the center of this rugged premise, a large canvas tent housed the leader of the Uchiha clan.

However, this person thought using the word _clan_ was a mistake. There was no true Uchiha clan. There had not been any for years. Now, in a place of darkness where the trees grew too thickly to allow any sunlight through, there were misfits, wanderers, vagabonds without any family and no trace of a past. It was as though the members of the current Uchiha clan had simply appeared from China's morning mists, and the man who led them had no choice but to accept their company and use it to his advantage.

Uchiha Sasuke did just that at the hour he knew to be sunset. His assembly, as pitiful as it was, contained only one woman – attractive if not not beautiful, but curvaceous and pleasing in the way he wanted her to be. Currently, his battle-marked fingers roved over her arching back, catching on thin white scars. Her breathing quickened with every movement he made, and he kept to himself as best he could even while the surge of her hips and the fall of tangled, blond hair made him crazy with something all too basic and extremely shallow.

When Temari came to him like this, Sasuke could almost pretend that he had the ability to feel things.

He watched with half-lidded eyes as she ended her task, ending _him_ only so briefly, before she collapsed atop him. The pressure of her slim body was momentary. She rolled to the side practically the very instant she fell, choosing to distance herself rather than stay. She was masquerading this as much as he was.

He did not touch her but his eyes examined the sweaty gleam of her neck, interest lingering dully in the muscles of her shoulders as she tied her hair up again. He faintly remembered wrenching the ribbons from her head, her sharp intake of breath… It could have been called passion, but it was truly only lust.

She lay down beside him, their skin barely meeting at the curve of her hip or the angle of his elbow. Blue and black eyes graced the tent's ceiling as two hearts returned to their normal rhythm. After several minutes' recovery, Temari muttered, "My brothers saw something of interest today."

They only ever spoke of the enemy, and Sasuke's jaw clenched. "What?"

"A Japanese man arrived on the shore today. His ship was taken by the sea, but he made it and was taken in by two of the Long men…Kiba and Shino. Gaara saw Kiba riding ahead, and Kankurou spotted Shino returning with the other."

"Who is he?" A grayish light now filled the tent, giving the Uchiha leader a darkness beyond the shade of his hair and eyes.

"They weren't close enough to find out the name. But his eyes, they said, are strange. White like clouds. Utterly blank." She sat up, reaching for her clothes in preparation to return to her brothers. "If Long is using him as outside help, I can only imagine," she went on offhandedly, "that he will be a better use to them than Mizuki was to us. Getting himself captured—"

"And you, a woman, wish I had sent you instead?"

Temari did not seem to notice the dangerous leveling of her impassive lover's voice. "I wouldn't have gotten caught, at least, if you hadn't made the mistake of choosing—" Her piece of mind was crushed by his hand closing around her jaw. Eyes widening, she made a small protesting noise that was muffled by his palm.

Sasuke pulled her over him again, bringing her close. His words were soft and sharp at once. "Do not presume to tell me what my mistakes are," he said lowly. His order was reinforced by the virtual silence, with only the distant crackling of campfires being started to fill the void. His hand shifted from covering her mouth to the base of her neck. He brought her face close enough to his that their lips were nearly touching, but something as innocent as a kiss was something that Sasuke and Temari had not – and would not – share.

"Perhaps it's true that a visit to the Long clan is needed." His tone now was not as dark but falsely conversational. Temari's blood raced involuntarily as he began to remove the few garments she had donned moments before. "I have neglected their precious leader for a merciful extension of time."

But though he said so, Sasuke was undoubtedly willing to take his time savoring what little comfort he found in his sunless world of nobodies.

* * *

The feast that the teacher Gai had spoken of was not what Neji had been expecting. For one thing, he was unused to the high-backed chair Lee guided him to in the banquet hall of the Long house instead of the low tables and cushions he knew from Japan. The people present were some of those he had seen outside; the blond girl, who now refused to look even a degree in his direction, the two who had been playing a board game, the chubby one, the man called Shino, and another man whose dog stayed always by his side. Not elders, not main family members – at least not ones such as the Hyuuga clan honored at their feasts.

Gai was speaking to a few men, some fathers of the others, Neji thought. Something stirred within him. It appeared fathers held an important hand in this place, and there had been a time when his too had sat with him at this very table, talking among them as though he had been raised there. Now, the man who had began all of the friendly, unfamiliar lifestyle, Long Tao Huang, was gone…it remained a mystery still who precisely Neji would be fighting for in this mission he had been given by Hiashi.

His fist clenched upon the smooth wood grain of the table, but everyone was too distracted to notice his less-than-serene state when a procession of cooks entered the banquet hall with steaming trays of vegetables and meats most likely produced from within the compound's walls. Neji sipped at his tea, gaze straying to the chair in the center of the long table to the left of Gai. The chair was currently empty of the clan leader, and just when he was considering asking Lee of the clan head's whereabouts, all chatter stopped. Neji could not find the source of the attention at first, thinking that they had all received some simultaneous mental signal.

But then a glimmer caught his eye. In the entranceway just beyond the head's chair stood a woman. Neji first wondered if she was not someone's new bride, for she was grandly dressed as though an affectionate man was spoiling her. He began his observation with her hair, not black but a warm brown, like cherry wood gently faded by the sun. It was piled high upon her head in a style that appear simple but was more than likely terribly complicated. Holding it in place was an ornament of professional work; a long stick of Chinese jade studded with a single, pale gem…that had been the glimmer, Neji realized.

Her frame was slender, the contours of her body noticeable but not prominent. She was appropriately dressed in a dress of stunning make. The silk was summer-sky-blue, rippling behind at the ankles. Gauze flowed rather than hung from her arms. The wrap she wore beneath the dress was golden satin, contrasting strikingly with the midnight-blue, white flower-patterned ribbon cinching her dress at the hips. The most distinguishable feature of her garment was that her family symbol, the dragon, resided in the design. Emerald green, the beast's tail began at her left shin and curled around her calves and waist, the body sewn over her right hip, and it ended with the dragon's ruby-eyed head, resting on her gold-covered bosom.

And because Neji was a man, his eyes found her face last of all, and perhaps this was just as well; if he had met her gaze first, he would not have been able to see anything else. Her face shape was well-defined but the angles were soft, the flesh bearing no powder or other masking tricks. Her nose was straight, not like most Chinese noses, and her eyes were—

Neji's expression sharpened as, from beside him, Lee stood up and the rest of those at the table did the same. There was not reverence among the guests, as there would be at a Hyuuga feast toward Neji's uncle, but there was respect like that given to a close friend. Neji too went to his feet as the woman made her way to the head chair, and then it came together in Neji's mind, fastening like a button in a hole. Here was the one Hiashi had sent him to help. Her eyes were exactly those of someone he had known fifteen years earlier, eyes that had looked upon him laughingly enough times for him to remember the look forever.

There was no laugh there now, only contemplation well-lit by the many lanterns throughout the hall.

Everyone started to lower themselves back into their seats, but a nudge from Lee kept Neji standing along with the finely-dressed leader of the clan Long.

Sitting to her right, Gai smiled widely. He still held an air of mirth, but he had set aside his constant silliness for a more reserved moment. "Hyuuga Neji, I again welcome you. Lee has told me of your badly-informed state. Long Tao Huang, the man you remember from the brief time you spent here in childhood, is no longer upon this earth. This is, in his stead, Tao Huang's daughter, Lady—"

"Long Tai Na," Neji murmured before Gai could utter the name. His could not have held it inside him even if he cared what sort of first impression he made. Memory swept a cold, swift hand through his mind, grasping at images he hadn't known were still there.

_A dark-eyed girl with ringlet pigtails lifted a dagger from the silk belt of her dress. The tool appeared too large for her undersized hand, but when she threw it, spinning, it landed in the very center of the red circle painted upon the tree trunk._

"_In Japan, girl not use weapons," Neji said with difficulty, his Chinese poor. Even at five years old, he did not want to tell her that her throw had been amazing. But the little girl he had been told to train with only grinned at him, not a trace of shyness available in her small face._

"_In China, girls don't use weapons either." Tai Na went to the tree and retrieved her dagger, ready to throw again. "But Father says that the Long family **is **China, and so it doesn't matter that I'm a girl because China isn't a man or a woman. I have to fight, too." She pulled her arm back, tossed it. "I have to live for my country."_

_Bull's-eye._

Long Tai Na's eyes watched him without surprise. Her expression held just as much observance as his, but it was also penetrating, and Neji felt pressured to continue. "I remember you from when I came here with my father."

"You remember a child." Her voice was firm though quite feminine. The overall beauty of her belied strength Neji suspected she had gained over the years. "As do I. Hyuuga Neji…the son of Hyuuga Hizashi who died within this very house fifteen years before now. That's who I remember." The words weren't said harshly but prosaically, and Neji stood without response to it. She kept her gaze locked with his as she continued, "Your eyes are as surprising as ever. I did forget the effect they have." But she did not elaborate.

"My uncle did not tell me you were this clan's new leader," said Neji in an effort to glean information from her.

One corner of her unpainted mouth quirked up. "Nor did he tell me you speak Chinese so well. I expected the broken language of a boy. And he also neglected to mention that your attention lands first below a woman's eyes." The table erupted with snickers and amused words. Neji had to force himself not to glare at her. "Let us eat," she called to those present, and she and Neji both sat as dining room chatter took over.

Tai Na went on speaking to Neji, and he realized the buzz of conversation was being used to give her words more privacy. "A joke at your expense, I'm afraid, Hyuuga. You are a commodity in the compound. We've not had a new arrival here since Lee came six years ago." She sent the young man, not a smile, but a pleasant expression. Lee's returned smile, however, was nothing short of brilliant.

"I have heard nothing of you or anyone here since the day I left China," Neji replied, his tone decidedly low. "I imagined you would be married and sent off to an actual village somewhere."

For a reason he was not sure of, she bristled at this. "My father's intentions for my marriage, I know, had nothing to do with me being 'sent off.' This is enlightened China, Hyuuga. And within my clan we do not send young girls off to be the slaves of arrogant country men. I am _not _the doll of puppeteer hands," she seethed. "I am the true successor of my honored father, and in this place you will regard me as more than a decoration for a man's bedroom."

She was the most strong-spoken female he had ever encountered in his life. She actually defended her position, unlike a cousin Neji now thought of who always hung her head and wordlessly took the criticism flung out by anyone who spoke of her.

"Well!" exclaimed Gai before Neji's urge to retort became a reality. "As eager as I'm sure young Hyuuga is to learn of our not-so-customary customs, do you not think it best to let him know why he is here, my lady?"

She looked at Gai, saw his smile, and the taught hold of her shoulders loosened in moments. Nodding, she murmured an agreement to him. Gai in turned said something to her that was too soft for another pair of ears, and she smiled in response. Neji could hardly believe the transformation but didn't have long to ponder it before she fixed him in her sights again.

"Hyuuga, who am I to you?"

He had never been asked a question like that before. The first thing that came to his mind was _tempting_. Unsure, he hesitated, but Lee and Gai were staring as they waited for his reply. He decided to say something safer. "My current leader…Long Tai Na."

"An answer sure to please any army's self-possessed general," she said swiftly, "but incorrect on both counts. I do not wish to lead you. I wish to ask for your help." She inclined her head for half a moment, the gem in her hair dazzling in the lamplight. "I do this not for me, but for those I care about. When my father died a decade ago, I became the only surviving Long in this clan."

Neji drank his tea and listened, hoping the scalding beverage would dissuade him from interrupting her with his own questions.

"I have been raised by Gai among a multitude of smaller families. You look so puzzled," she commented, once more appearing amused.

He took advantage of the break in her story to say, "In my clan, we've only Hyuuga. Were there to be only one of us remaining, it would not be claimed that the clan continues."

"Ah, blinded by tradition," she noted. She sipped from her own tea to wet her tongue. "The last time you were in China, the only person not a Long that resided here was Gai. In 674 of the Tang Dynasty, during a battle with the Uchiha clan, Gai killed Uchiha Tekka and saved my father's life. My father invited him in as a member of the Long clan, and he was the first to use the name as though he was born with it.

"It was this way in the following years, as the members of the original clan died either from battle or age. My father did not take a wife until he was 39 years old, and my mother did not die bearing me until he was 41. His father before him also had children late in life. This family was, you could say, badly timed. So small families, especially those with children, were taken it. By the time my father died, this clan was entirely made of inaugurated Longs, with the exception of me." Tai Na's face bore a bittersweet expression. "Lee is the most recent addition."

Gai cut in, overexcited. "And how he earned the name! My lady traveled out of my sight when she was twelve, and fell into the river. Lee was passing and saved her with a marvelous show of fiery youth, and we at once allowed him into our dear family!"

"Gai shi-fu!" Lee looked like he could burst with pride at such praise. "Thank you!"

Tai Na looked a little exasperated but continued. "It was my father's dying wish that I recreate a clan of the Longs. His pride for his family and for China was passed on to me. This family will _not_ die." Determination again entered her features. "I shan't let it be destroyed by the Uchiha."

"You are still feuding with the Uchiha?" Astounded, Neji lowered his teacup. He had not known what to expect, but it had not been the same fight.

"_Feud_ is not the word. _Battle_ is. You and I were too young at the time to know, but the fight between the Uchiha and the Long clans were over this very land. When Uchiha Fugaku arrived from Japan with his clan, he wanted to settle on my father's property. This land was bestowed upon my father personally by Emperor Gao Zong more than forty years ago. My father, Long Tao Huang, was as loyal to China as they come, and he did not want the Japanese taking it from him. Fugaku did not simply request his stay, he _announced _it. Such disrespect my father could not abide."

"This was three years before I met Tao Huang," added Gai. "It is now unknown to anyone alive who gave the first strike, but the Long clan and Uchiha clan began a fight. The Longs stayed here, and the Uchiha have always hid in the thick of the forest. We now know they are on the border of the Long land, very near to several civilian villages, and we cannot attack them because of it."

"So we wait for them to attack us." Her brow furrowed with disdain for the fact. "They have adapted to the times, as we have. And in fact, the majority of my combatants are too old now for actual battle. Their group is small, but so is my main force. So although we best them in number, in reality our level of power is very close to equal."

Lee took his turn to jump in. "Until two weeks ago, it had actually been some time since we have had trouble with them. Your uncle was messaged because their new leader, Fugaku's son Sasuke, has rebuilt his clan from the proverbial ashes and threatened us with various shows of force."

Neji blinked confusedly. "The Uchiha clan was destroyed?"

"Thoroughly," replied Tai Na, but again she did not elaborate. "The point is, Sasuke and his own are strong. Just last night we caught a spy of his; incompetently, he let us catch him with ease, but Sasuke cleverly refrained from passing him any information whatsoever. He's told us nothing."

"Then what was the point of sending an incompetent spy not trustworthy enough to give secrets to, only for him to be captured by the enemy?"

"My own question exactly." She sighed a little and downed the rest of her tea. "At any rate, you know what you're needed here for. To fight a strong and apparently intelligent adversary. I am ready for this battle to end, Hyuuga Neji. Your uncle Hiashi has informed me that your talents are to be readily relied upon."

Of course, thought Neji, because Hiashi saw him as nothing more than a weapon, or at the very least, a tool for his personal use. "He said that?"

"I do not believe him." Tai Na's expression was serious, even severe. Neji saw it, and attraction dueled with aggression for supremacy as he looked at her. "Yet…my expectations for you far surpass any recollections I have of our early childhood together. I must insist upon not being disappointed."

It was now Neji's turn to give one of those secret smirks which had been passed around the table all evening. "In that case, I insist upon impressing you."

She nodded, satisfied for now. "That is just what I want to hear. But I believe that is all the history we shall speak of tonight. You have been welcomed; now eat. We will speak more on these matters tomorrow, I expect."

Questions still tugged at his tongue, especially concerning the Uchiha clan and their supposed power which Tai Na had only hinted at to him. He would need specifics on his opponent. But the question that leapt to his lips first was, "You said I was wrong on two counts." At an expectant look from Gai, he added, "My lady."

She sent Gai a look of her own, saying, "You've no need to address me so formally. I can spare the title for a foreigner whose help I am to be receiving. But you _were_ wrong, Hyuuga. I am not called 'Tai Na' anymore."

Here she seemed to drop her entire façade of haughtiness, but the air of demanded respect remained around her. She balanced her chin on her jaw, regarding him with one eye. At least, she smiled at him – the first genuine one he had received – and the open-jawed dragon on her breast seemed to warn Neji to be cautious.

"My name is Tenten."

_To Be Continued…_


	4. A Start

**Author's Notes:**_ First thing, I know there were no glasses in this time period. But how else are you going to know Kabuto? Writing this chapter was exciting, and it's a little longer than usual. So enjoy! _

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Four

By Nessie

It was morning. He was only half-awake and had not yet even opened his eyes. Neji knew from simply feeling the temperature of his chamber that daybreak had just hit. But it was not the arrival of dawn that had inflicted consciousness upon him.

Someone was in his room. In the time it took for lightning to flash, the sword at the edge of his mattress was unsheathed, he was sitting up ramrod straight, and the steel of his blade was hovering centimeters away from the place where the shoulder met the neck of his current master.

_Mistress_, Neji thought as his eyes narrowed into a white glare. Kneeling beside his slightly-elevated bed was Tenten, her face pale from the light bleeding through the window and impossibly calm. Her eyes were trained on him with a sort of vague curiosity – as though the fact that he had been on the verge of decapitating her was of no importance at all. After several moments, Tenten smirked right into Neji's scowl.

"What, Hyuuga?" she said. The huskiness to her voice told him that she had not spoken yet this morning. "Were you going to kill me?"

For a fraction of a second, Neji thought he saw something in the depths of her soil-colored eyes…it was like seeing something from a dream in reality, but he figured it must only be remnants of childhood memories toying with his mind. It was still so odd to see eyes he knew to belong to a slip of a girl set in the angles and planes of a woman's face.

Belatedly he took his sword away from her flesh. "Forgive me," he replied without nearly as much remorse as anyone else would have been feeling at such a moment. "I do not take well to being approached without warning."

"Yes, Shino mentioned that to me last night at our meal. He said you took up your sword with impressive skill, and I can thankfully agree with him. Although," murmured Tenten, "had I any serious concern for my life, I would have pierced you seconds before you cut me." Her eyes fell downward, and Neji followed her gaze to see a thick, long needle clenched between her right hand's middle and index fingers. The tip was aimed right at his stomach. If she knew how to use it – and Neji had no doubt that she did – the resulting wound could have proved fatal.

Tenten got to her feet and angled a contemplating gaze down at him, taking in his state of dress – or lack thereof. Neji was suddenly acutely aware that beneath the thin summer blanket which had been provided for him he was entirely nude and he clenched the coverlet more out of annoyance than embarrassment. Tenten herself was dressed in loose-fitting garments – men's clothing, good for fighting. An instant's inspection showed that the fold of her shirt was a tad too low, and her breast bindings peeked out from behind berry-colored material. Neji hurriedly shifted his gaze to more innocent places. Her hair was worn up as it had the night before, but instead of the single pile atop her head, her tresses were separated into two buns. On her hip was a sword sheathed in the purest silver with veins of sapphire running in swirls.

His eye stayed on the weapon for the fewest of moments as he wondered why it looked so familiar, but then Tenten was turning and approaching the door. "I know you are used to being the nephew of a rich uncle," she called, the words doing nothing to ease Neji's displeasure, "but we in the Long clan begin our training two hours before dawn and end at first light."

"Why such an odd time?" Neji asked, now remembering how strange he had thought it when everyone had gone to bed so early.

"Here in my home we suffer the threat of being attacked at any time during the day. It is because of this strict schedule," she went on, "that we managed to catch the Uchiha spy night before last."

Neji thought about that for a moment; all Hyuugas rose two hours _after _dawn for their training. There was no war in Japan and Neji's clan was left mostly to its own affairs. In comparison to this woman leader of men, he appeared almost lazy.

"Rise and dress," ordered Tenten as she stepped over the threshold. It might have been his imagination, but Neji thought he saw her eyes pause on his bare chest. If so, the two brown orbs met with his so quickly that it could not have truly been called a look. "There is breakfast waiting for you. And I've plans to show you our useless spy."

Neji waited until she was gone before moving. He now caught a distinct scent of something in the air…perspiration mingled with a flower he couldn't name. As he put on the clothes Lee had given him, he couldn't help but wonder if his father had experienced the same feeling of confusion in his time here. There had been times when Neji, too young to interpret any the minds of adults, had seen the deepest of scowls etched on his father's face. He had come to China, to this very compound, to fight for a cause he was not a part of, bringing Neji "to learn."

But Neji had learned nothing, as far as he was concerned. Unless, of course, one could be taught loss. If that was so, then he in fact had learned all he needed to know.

Upon finishing breakfast, Neji was instructed by a servant to meet Tenten at a nearby building close to the main family's house. Arriving there, he found a place not unlike a stable – indeed, it was connected by an atrium to one – but rather than horses' stalls there were cells with iron criss-crossing over the doors. Tenten stood before the cell farthest from the entrance and, getting closer, Neji saw she was engaged in a battle of mean stares with the only prisoner.

"Mizuki," Tenten said, "I'd like you to meet Hyuuga Neji."

Neji peered into the human cage and saw a man in dirty black clothes, horribly disheveled, with his pale hair long and scraggly. The man turned his lusterless gaze to him with the smallest sign of brain activity. "Hyuuga…heard that name before," he croaked. "Might remember where if I had some water."

"Oh, don't start acting like we've mistreated you," Tenten snapped. "We've given you all the nourishment you require to live, even though you're so worthless Uchiha couldn't be bothered to give you a single slip of information."

That did the trick. Mizuki reared, leaping to his feet and thrusting an arm through a space in the bars in an effort to reach Tenten. The length of his fingers fell just short of her exposed neck. "I'm _not_ worthless! I was sent by Sasuke himself to—"

"Fail?" Tenten leered. "You of the Uchiha clan are barely fit to walk on China's noble dirt, let alone presume to take my family's share of it. Do you now rely on Uchiha Sasuke to save your life? Will he come for someone so without purpose?"

Mizuki raged, his arm lashing wildly in his wish to harm her, but Tenten stepped away and met Neji's frown. "I don't starve or dehydrate my prisoners like most do – my father taught me to show mercy where I would want mercy shown to me. Even if he did despise common filth like this," she added sourly over her shoulder so Mizuki could hear.

Neji could hardly believe his ears. Here was the same sweet girl his childhood memories showed him with her dagger and her target, now spouting jeers and throwing barbs so bitterly?

Another voice joined the room, sounding over Mizuki's snarls and threats. "You might just have starved him for posterity." Neji looked over his shoulder to see a woman standing in the threshold, the early morning sunlight filtering in around her. Blond hair glowed at the edges, and red lips smirked at them both. "But you're as capable as ever, Tenten."

"Tsunade!" Tenten flew toward her but the two women did not touch. They acted as men, keeping their distance, but the questions came more fervently. "What are you doing here? Jiraiya said you both would be kept away for several months."

"Jiraiya underestimates my ability to take care of business," Tsunade replied, giving her head a sassy cock. "He'll be along before another sunrise."

Tsunade…Jiraiya…neither of these names meant anything to Neji, and he silently waited for someone to explain the presence of this newcomer. Tsunade's light eyes turned him, then widened.

"Hyuuga," she intoned. "I would know the eyes anywhere."

"I'd have told you, could I reach you," said Tenten, her hair escaping darkly from her buns. "Hiashi of the Hyuuga House offered me this man's services. He is named Neji, Hizashi's son."

Tsunade studied him carefully. "What have you told him?" she asked, not removing her gaze. Her expression seemed cautious but more contemplative than anything. Her eyes flicked briefly to Tenten, then back to Neji.

"Not much," Neji offered before Tenten could respond.

The woman called Tsunade grinned. "No, Tenten has a poor habit of skipping details. I, however, do not and before I interrogate either of you…" Her jovial expression fell, and Tenten was suddenly the object of a stern look. "You are to be attacked before noon has come. I've already given the word," she added when Tenten made a movement, "and they'll not arrive for another couple of hours or so. A spy of mine spotted them and told me when I was on my way here."

"Fine," Tenten exhaled, seeming distressed even though she continued to radiate calm. Neji watched her for a moment before Tsunade approached him and boldly set a hand on his shoulder. She was very tall for a woman, practically sharing his height, and she peered into his face with a look of amusement.

"The Long clan does not accept help easily. Tenten is hardheaded," she went on and Tenten made a sound of indignation, "but she knows what she's doing so there is merit in that. You are as good a fighter as your father, I am assuming?"

"He did not live long enough for me to know," Neji replied. "I am good enough to survive a battle."

Tsunade's dark eyes gleamed. "But to win?"

"That as well." Who was this woman to question him so?

After a moment, Tsunade appeared to finish her evaluation of the feelings in his eyes, and she stepped away. "Then that's just perfect, isn't it?"

"We don't have time for this," Tenten said to her sternly. "If I'm to engage in battle in two hours' time, I'll need to prepare and check on my men. You too, Hyuuga." Throwing a look at Neji on her way out, she told him, "You'll have live combat for your training this morning."

Neji didn't resist the smug look that demanded to cross his face. "That is the best kind of training."

Tenten narrowed her eyes, doubtful of him, but she was gone without another remark. Tsunade folded her arms and sighed. "She is so serious. She'll die of that before a sword wound, I should think. But Hyuuga…"

Neji blinked the vision of Tenten's infuriatingly dubious face out of his mind and met Tsunade's gaze.

"You must prove yourself to her. And you must not take the Uchiha lightly. They are strong, and we only beat them with our numbers."

"Are you a member of this clan as well?" asked Neji, stepping with her toward the door and into the sunlight.

Tsunade's amused smile was back. "No. But I am devoted to that woman you call leader now – Long Tai Na. Do you know why she changed her name to Tenten?"

"I know hardly anything." This fact irritated Neji as much as Tenten herself did.

"Tenten is not a very feminine name. It could easily be mistaken for that of a man's – which is just what she needed to fool my mistress. Tenten is a ruler in a man's world, heading one of the most powerful clans in China. My mistress would be terribly jealous of her – she is not the most forgiving woman."

"And who is your mistress?"

They stopped walking, Tsunade looking into the sky as though she were trying to smile at the gods. "One whose favor this clan is in. The clan of Long has only survived because of that. Surely when you arrived they threw a banquet?"

"Yes."

"And Tenten wore a stunning dress bearing her family's symbol?"

"_Yes_," Neji said impatiently. The vision of that dragon made him think of Tenten's slim waist, hidden by today's choice of clothing, along with…other places. He gave his head a jerk, frustrated with himself.

"That dress was originally a man's ensemble, to be worn by Long Tao Huang's 'son,' Tenten. Ino, the one daughter in this clan close to Tenten's age, altered it for her. It was a gift from my mistress." Tsunade sent him a sideways glance, her voice carrying a hidden laugh.

Neji wondered…and then—

"The ruler of this entire country in this Zhou Dynasty: Empress Wu Ze Tian."

* * *

He stood on top of the western wall next to Lee, adrenaline already coursing through him at the prospect of fighting. Neji had experienced his share of combat over the years; he had fought others in his own clan for Hiashi's entertainment and scrutiny. He had always received the feeling that were he to be anything less than satisfactory, Hiashi would throw Neji from the family compound or send him to someplace where fighting was more savage than a feud between clans.

In Neji's mind, it was a miracle that he was still living at twenty years old.

To Lee's right was Tenten, and to Tenten's right was Gai. The four of them were like some newly-assembled team – even though Neji was the only new one – and were ready for anything to come at them. Tenten had ordered the rest of the clan's warriors to remain on the ground outside the wall, waiting for Tenten's word. They would analyze the oncoming force and then report to Shikamaru, the bothered-looking man currently heading the group down below.

"You must know, Hyuuga," began Lee, and the person he was addressing interrupted.

"Just call me Neji." _Hyuuga _from a man his age made him feel old.

"Neji…Tenten is my friend. She does not intend to treat you with anything less than respect. I'm sure her, ah…not-so-warm behavior is only from her desire to be cautious. She has never had to trust her clan to the skills of an outsider before." The bowl-haired man was in earnest.

Neji's white eyes scanned the distant forest border for any sign of activity. "She doesn't bother me."

Lee gave a breathy chuckle. "She will."

Before Neji could ask what the other young man meant by that statement, Gai's voice boomed over them. "They approach! Take guard, my youthful friends!"

Indeed, from the shadows cast by the trees, people were materializing. Neji's eyes roved over a hooded man, a blond woman, and a reddish brown-haired man standing together, sharing a vague family resemblance. There was a man with light-colored hair and spectacles, and, in front of them all, a man who was dark all over, from his hair and eyes to his very clothing.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Lee murmured to Neji.

Surprisingly, it was he who spoke first after surveying what he was up against. "You send out the same warriors once more, Long Tenten." A smirk twisted Sasuke's face. "And as always, you expect my men to fall?"

"You misunderstand, Uchiha!" called Tenten, her voice powerful from atop the wall. "_You_ are the only one who need fall. I care nothing for your pawns; they can die or live as they so choose." From the corner of his eye, Neji saw Tenten unsheathe her sword, and the steel gleamed in the midday sun. "Perhaps we will be defeated if you bring that brother of yours back – he killed off the rest of your clan easily enough."

Neji started at this new information. Something changed with those words. Gai shifted in an anxious way, but Uchiha Sasuke went stone-still, his hand in the lining of his shirt which undoubtedly contained some form of weapon.

"At least," Sasuke said, "my late father had to be murdered to die instead of being defeated by his own decrepit body." Tenten went tense all over. "And he left behind a son to do a man's job, not some daughter who pretends to have strength and doesn't realize she's only good for a fighter's pleasure, not a fight itself."

"Don't—!" Gai was yelling, but Tenten had already leapt from the wall, somersaulting on her way to slow the long descent. In a flash, her teacher and his pupil went too, and Neji was last, unsheathing his own sword as he fell.

The Uchiha had moved as well. Hitting the ground, Neji didn't have time to do a survey of who was where because standing right before him was Uchiha Sasuke, his eyes black as ebony, a Japanese shuriken clutched between his fingers.

"So you're the Longs' new arrival," Sasuke murmured lowly. Neji held stock-still, sizing the possible adversary up even as he was sized up himself. "You don't look like much. Japanese. Tell me," he went into a stance, "why do you fight your own people?"

Neji opted for replacing his sword in its sheath and went into a stance as well, hands up. "I've a mission to fulfill that involves your defeat."

The Uchiha lord looked amused. "But this is not your place. Are you so purposeless that you must fight in a battle that has nothing to do with you?" Sasuke jerked, then ran forward. Neji stepped back, preparing for a kick…

A rough, feminine voice assaulted their ears. "SASUKE!" Neji was at once shoved aside by a flurry of brown hair and silk the color of raspberries. Tenten took the place he had been occupying. Rage flared for a brief second before he heard her say, "You're mine and you know that. How dare you leave me to fight your whore!"

"Temari would be a perfect opponent for you," Sasuke replied, a seethe coating his tone. "Although I'm willing to bet you to have been to bed with more men than her." Sparks flew over his face as Tenten furiously pounded her sword against his kunai. As disgruntled as he was by her action toward him, Neji understood her anger, but he couldn't stay in one place any longer and turned.

The dark-eyed redhead was fighting Lee, Shikamaru fought the hooded one, and the blond woman he assumed was Temari was heading back to the forest, a lax figure slung over her shoulder. Pale hair and a face just as crazy when unconscious told Neji it was a newly-freed Mizuki, and he went after her.

"Stop!" cried Neji, pulling a dagger from a bandage around his leg. Temari did stop and, as he threw his weapon, turned and let the blade's point sink straight into Mizuki's exposed chest.

Temari didn't look the least bit bothered, even when her supposed ally's blood was running down her side. "Many thanks," she called to Neji, baffling him enough that he allowed her to escape back into the woods.

He didn't have enough time to stay baffled, however. A heavy grunting sound nearby had him turning to see Gai engaged in combat with the bespectacled man that had stood beside Sasuke. The stranger's hand was buried in Gai's gut, and when he retracted it, blood coated his fingertips and flew in the air. Neji didn't think but acted, and sped toward the stranger. In a second, his elbow was up and digging right into the enemy's throat. He stumbled back as Gai fell to the ground. Choking, the stranger took off, motioning to others.

And then the Uchiha clan was retreating, disappearing into the forest until only Sasuke was left. They were close enough for Neji to hear words pass between the two dueling leaders.

"As always, this hasn't ended, Tenten." Sasuke's right arm sported a red cut from his shoulder to his wrist. In response to his threat, Tenten only smiled.

"Every day, Sasuke," she retorted, her blade bright with his blood, "brings us close to the day I kill you."

Sasuke spit at her, missing, and then swiveled and dove into the cover of the trees, following his group back to their hideaway. Tenten wasted no time in turning to survey the potential damage. Her eyes first alighted on Gai, and her confident expression changed to one that Neji had not yet seen her wear.

Fear.

"Gai! _Gai_!" And she was running, ordering for Tsunade to come, and Neji was as confused by her as he had ever been. It was as though this woman could turn her emotions on and off at will, and currently she was determined to be distressed over her mentor.

But before she could even reach him, Gai was standing, holding his stomach. His head came up and a brighter-than-bright smile was twinkling. He removed his hand to reveal only a small cut, but he was still regaining his breath.

"The first strike was nothing," he told Tenten when he could speak. "But if Kabuto had hit me with another, well…" He turned his dark eyes to the only white ones in the area. "Thank you, Hyuuga Neji. If you'll believe it, your father also saved my life as well. Interesting how history repeats itself!" And then he was _laughing_, causing Tenten to slump against the nearest compound wall in relief.

They learned within the next few minutes that the only one with a bad injury was Shikamaru, his left leg broken by the hooded Uchiha named Kankurou. Tenten's relief turned once more to rage, and Neji saw her punch a stone in the tall wall with her bare knuckles.

"This whole _battle _of yours," he told her, annoyed still by her interruption of his fight with Sasuke, "is foolish."

"You think I do not _know _that?!" she demanded, rounding on him with passionately bright eyes. "For two years, I have—" She cut herself off with silence, and then took a moment to simply breath, her eyes sliding shut. Neji watched as calm overtook her. "Thank you," she said, taking him aback. "From what I've heard, you've saved Gai's life. That is something I must be grateful for." Moving back, she bowed to him in perfect Japanese form.

Neji's eyes narrowed. "That is what I was sent here for. To help you."

Tenten kept her gaze on the grass, bloodied in places by the recently-ended fight between her clan and its enemy. "This is a burden I bear for my honor, and my family's honor. I do not ask you to understand, nor do I feel obligated to explain." She suddenly met his eyes again, startling him. "But I hope that we will endure this together."

Neji was not swayed by the gentleness in her tone. For all he knew, she was as false as the others in his life had been. "I do not feel we shall get along." It was an honest statement. Even if the loose hair coming out of her buns did look soft enough to make him want to free the rest and run his fingers through it.

"That's fine, too, Hyuuga."

"Neji," he snapped, endlessly hating his humanity. Tenten shot him a tired look, but then comprehended. She nodded.

"Tenten," she offered, and he too bobbed his head. It was a start.

And Neji had the feeling that they were nowhere near the end.

_To Be Continued…_


	5. Clearer Target

**Author's Notes**: _Sorry the chapter's a little late. The next update might have to wait a little longer than usual (I bet you have started to pick up on my updates-on-weekends pattern) because I will be working on projects for other fandom-related events, but I hope you will all keep with me. I promise you, the upcoming developments after this chapter with make it worth your while._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Five

By Nessie

Saltwater lapped over Sakura's exposed toes as she watched the sun ascend to rule another day. Navy blue and violet streaked across the sky like scratches from a beast's claws, a blood-red hue lying beneath it all. It spoke to her of death, and memories of the last time she had stood on this shore swamped her more than the tallest wave could have done.

_Three days_, she mused. It took less than three days for a woman's heart to curl in on itself and die, everything she had ever known wasting away. All that was needed was a previous death. _Neji…_

Scraps of ruined ship had been found in both China and Japan, enough that it had not been difficult to conclude that Neji's ship had been destroyed in an unpredicted storm. In turn, there had been no survivors to speak of. Sakura had not once considered questioning the fact as it had been told her personally by Hyuuga Hiashi, head of the powerful clan's house, only minutes earlier.

He stood behind her now, and Sakura was not certain if he too watched the horizon or watched her for signs of weakness. She had not as yet shown him any that she was aware of but simply stood with her back to him, gaze trained on the spot she had last seen Neji as he sailed away. Was that truly the end of it all? She had known Neji since childhood, and less than a year ago, they had come together with the announcement of Hyuuga Hinata's future position. Neji had been released from any marriage obligations, and it had been only logical to turn to the one woman he could honestly call a friend.

Sakura's jaw tightened. _Logical_. Surely it had been more than just that for both of them? She had never seen herself in the future with any besides Neji, and Neji had always implied the same. They had never spoken of marriage, of course, or even of love. They had simply…stayed together. Always. It was a constant expectation between them, as constant as the stars accompanying the moon.

And now, it seemed, the moon was dead.

All too suddenly, Hiashi was at Sakura's side. She felt her whole body go taught – no one, least of all a non-Hyuuga, was comfortable around this intimidating man.

"Have you no tears for my nephew?" he inquired. His calm voice was even-toned, entirely unaffected, and Sakura recalled how much pain this person had forced upon Neji for the last fifteen years; the rigid lessons in Chinese, the nearly-constant training, the implications that he would always be sent to the place where his father was killed. Even though Neji had proved himself in talent, his hope of achieving his uncle's approval had been denied him. And now…

Anger brushed chilled fingers over her heart. "Plenty for him," Sakura murmured in response, careful to keep any dislike out of her voice. "But I do not cry in the presence of others." She courageously risked a glance at his face – the eyes like marble, the hair like onyx. Everything about Hiashi gave the impression that he was cut from stone.

"That is honorable enough." Practical words, not praise. Sakura wondered further; how hard it must have been for Neji to grow up knowing the exact image of his father in someone who cared nothing for him. "I see why he might have chosen you."

"We shared no promise, Hyuuga-sama. Neji-san and I remained friends."

"And you believe he would not have had more?" When she kept silent, Hiashi inhaled deeply. "By naming my daughter as consort to this clan's successor, her future husband, I relinquished my say over Neji's choice of a wife. Still, had he decided on you, you would have had my approval whether or not he accepted it."

She had an inkling that the statement was meant to comfort, but Sakura's eyes grew rebelliously wet.

Hiashi went on, "As you are a Haruno and not of my house, I've not any control over the decisions that you may make."

Sakura did not know what he was implying, but she was certain that she could not bear any more of his fruitless attempts to console her and hurriedly said, "Hyuuga-sama…you've no obligation to show me concern. I fare well without friends."

Hiashi comprehended that by "friends," she meant "Neji." And he knew that her brave front was about as solid as the stretch of water in front of them. "Very well," he acknowledged, turning and striding away without so much as a final look in her direction, intending to leave her to whatever amount of grief she had.

As soon as his sandaled feet went from sand to grass, the sound of as woman's sobs reached his ears. Hiashi kept walking.

* * *

"Do you not feel it is time to reevaluate this arrangement of yours?"

Neji watched as Tenten, with her back to him, studied a distant target in her mid-afternoon archery training. The only sign suggesting that she had even heard him was a brief pause as she pulled back the arrow on her bow. Recovering quickly, she released the projectile, and a low whistle cut through the air before its point thoroughly embedded itself in a tree trunk marked with an outline of a man's body.

Annoyed at her lack of response, Neji persisted. "You have men injured and risk their lives daily for a plot of land you use only a fraction of. Cannot you—"

"Neji," said Tenten, raising her voice to compensate for the distance as she went to retrieve her arrow. "Out of respect for your late father—"

"Do not speak of my father," he snapped.

She sent him a look with a question settled in her brown eyes. _How are we to converse if we continually interrupt one another? _"Then out of respect for my mentor's faith in your abilities, I will tolerate your skepticism. But I will not abide your questioning of my authority."

"And if your questioning causes needless deaths? Your Shikamaru has already been dealt a harsh wound, and Gai—"

"We have agreed once upon the foolishness of this battle. My loyalty to my father's memory and to China itself are reasons enough for me to fight – for all of us to fight." Arrow in hand, Tenten notched it, released, hit the target's "head" and went for the arrow again. "You are Japanese. I do not expect you to understand."

"It is not of understanding. There is too much I do not know because you have not told me." Neji took a step closer to her. Tenten's firing pattern continued, although it seemed her accuracy grew all the more deadly each time she let fly her arrow. "You talk of pride for China and yet you deceive your Empress. Half of your 'family' is Japanese." He waited, but Tenten said nothing, only pulled back for another strike. "And you are trying to lead as an unmarried woman—"

The arrow was loosed and struck right between the drawn-on man's drawn-on legs. Neji's eyes narrowed.

Behind him, there was a deep, heartfelt chuckle. The Hyuuga turned to see Gai, his arms folded and a smile on his face. "My Tenten," he said, "sometimes falls prey to a bad temper. Please do not let it ruin your impression of her." He joined Neji and watched the young woman continue her practice, heedless of them. "You know, Neji, she has been through much the same pain as you have. And, like with you, I believe that it has increased her youthfulness, her strength, and her will. Her life is summed up by her sex. The solitary face that she is female makes her existence that much more complicated." Gai, whose smile had faded a couple of sentences ago, now took on an uncharacteristically serious tone. "And, with all due respect, my young Hyuuga, she does not require a reminder of that from you. The two of you," he persisted, giving Neji no reprieve, "are far more similar than I believe you realize."

Too irritated to feel kindred, Neji shrugged, letting his silence convey his doubt.

"Well!" another jovial voice resounded. "It _is_ nice to know that Hyuugas are as hardheaded and stubborn as ever." Behind all three of them stood a man, tall and muscled from years, his hair almost as white as Neji's eyes despite not looking very old. The most noticeable trait he had was the grin he wore – a _you can hide nothing from me _smile.

"Although, I admit," he went on, "Hyuuga Hizashi only needed a couple of hours to warm up to us."

"Tsunade said you would be coming, Jiraiya." Tenten abandoned her bow and approached to clasp hands with the arrival. "All is well?"

"Of course. The Empress sends her majestic regards, _my lord_." Jiraiya's dark eyes left Tenten and turned to Neji. "I take it from that unlit look on your face that no one has told you who I am?"

"A pervert," Tenten offered, a corner of her lips twitching. This put Neji in a momentary stunned state. He was still not certain of her capacity for happiness, let alone mirth.

Gai grinned. "Indeed." Jiraiya winced. "And, incidentally, Jiraiya is also Empress Wu Ze Tian's personal messenger and a bodyguard…when he isn't working as the chief of Her secret police."

Neji started. How far in was this Long clan? Secret police, China's ruling body…these were contacts that thousands of leaders could ever only dream of.

"Don't let the chatter of old men distract you from your training, young Tenten." Jiraiya smiled warmly. "Not that you need the practice."

"It is tiresome to draw back the same arrow for hours," Tenten said, "but it is less boring than the listening to the three of you, I would wager."

Gai and Jiraiya laughed, seeming to catch a hidden joke which Neji had failed to even glimpse. Tenten went away, however, leaving Neji to ask his own question of people he might receive answers from. "Then that woman, Tsunade. She is—"

"My Empress's right-hand woman for the last ten years. And nine years ago, we began to lead Her police," replied Jiriaya. Neji was pleased immensely to get a direct response for once.

"It was Tsunade," added Gai, "who spoke on behalf of this clan shortly after Empress Wu Ze Tian's reign commenced. It is thanks to her loyalty that we are still able to live here like this, despite our unusual standards for a clan. Tsunade is related to Tenten."

Neji's eyebrows darted up. He thought of the dark Long daughter and the fair-haired Tsunade, failing to see any connection besides, perhaps, their eyes.

"Distantly. You see," Gai furthered, "Tenten's life is more entangled than you can possibly imagine, Neji. Her loyalty to China is fierce from her upbringing, but so too is her openness to people not of Chinese blood. Long Tao Huang, her well-remembered father, was strictly Chinese-only for a very long time. As you know, Tenten is the only child he ever had, and she was not born until his had passed his prime. This is partially because he spent so much energy of fighting the Uchiha clan. The other is because he married late. When he did, it was to a beautiful young woman called Takanashi Amaya."

"Japanese." Neji's voice came out clipped in his surprise, and he craned his neck to view Tenten. She was adjusting the string of her bow, wisps of hair too light to be pure Chinese hangings from the binds on her head and sticking to her damp neck. He could see it, now that he knew…her eyes were too wide for Chinese, but not by much. Her complexion was tanned now from the summer heat but would be paler than others' come the winter.

Gai nodded. "Amaya died as Tenten first started to live, and though Tao Huang's marriage to her mother had opened his mind exceedingly, mannerisms and sternness leftover from his young life still managed to be passed into Tenten. Despite her ancestry, she lives for China. And yes, it has made her somewhat hypocritical. Longs were all very stubborn. Not unlike Hyuugas," he finished merrily.

A Chinese-Japanese woman leading a clan of mismatched families hailing from both worlds of which she was born; that was Tenten. Something sparked in Neji's mind, and he witnessed her loose her arrow yet again – her finest shot yet – he felt a sort of caution fill him. Admiration snuck in before he could beat it down. And he wondered, if esteem for her could work its way past Neji's defenses against Tenten, could anything else do the same?

_Sakura. _He tried to bring himself to thoughts of Japan, of hair the color of spring blossoms, of eyes green as the sea, but all such images were thwarted in place of an armed woman with mahogany hair in disarray and arm muscles that gleamed with sweat.

"Do you see what I see when I look upon her, Hyuuga Neji?" Neji's attention surged back to the men, but Gai was gone, presumably to announce Jiraiya's return. Jiraiya remained, standing beside Neji with proud eyes on the undistracted archer. "I see a woman, doubtlessly, and the daughter of my good friend Tao Huang. Both of those things should bring her honor. Have you ever before seen a woman take so much upon her shoulders? Others like her are married, having children, living for one man and not for themselves.

But Tenten…she exists in a way that surpasses such a traditional life. She too lives not for herself but for others, and not for just one man alone but for over a hundred people who depend on her for guidance. She has done this for only two years, and yet does she not perform masterfully?" Jiraiya did not speak for hope of reply, Neji knew, and so he stayed silent. For several moments no words came forth, until there was another whistle from Tenten's arrow and an ensuing splintering of wood from another flawless hit.

"Do you understand, Neji, how much of an archer this young woman truly is? It is enough for most warriors to know that they have hit their target and hit it well. Tenten is more skilled than many of the most aged, experienced archers within this compound in that she does not only know that she has struck her target…she knows _why _she has struck it."

At last, Jiraiya turned to Neji and addressed him consciously. "Serve her well for, if nothing else, the knowledge of her lifelong hardships. Having you here, a person who symbolizes all that she has ever known, is greater a comfort to Tenten than you can comprehend."

"How could I possibly symbolize," began Neji, but Jiraiya held up a strong hand.

"She will let you know in time, in her way." His grin broke out once more. "She is very good at that." Saying so, the elder man turned on his heel and left the clearing, a lighthearted tune trailing behind him.

Mysteries, Neji reflected. China was a land of mysteries, with its female ruler and its secret clan wars. Tenten most of all, he thought, was enigmatic to him. Watching her now, he knew she sensed his presence but said nothing at all to him. He leaned against the rough bark of an adjacent tree, choosing for now to simply watch her exist.

They stayed like that until sunset – Neji's pale eyes gazing out as Tenten's arrow was launched again and again, the cracking of the hits rhythmic, like waves crashing down on land.

Or like the slow-paced progression of the battle that trapped them.

_To Be Continued…_


	6. Suggestions

**Author's Notes**: _Alright, so this chapter was getting very long and I decided to cut it in half so that I could still meet the weekend deadline for updates. A little more necessary back story (this should be the last), but developments too! And hopefully you'll enjoy it._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fanfiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Six

By Nessie

The sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh reverberated throughout the clearing where the Uchiha clan made camp, sending flocks of birds winging out of the trees. Far below them, a blond woman stumbled back with a cry of rage rather than pain.

"You would dare to be angry with me," came Uchiha Sasuke's suspiciously quiet question, "when it is only yourself that has disgraced you?"

Temari held a hand over her reddening left cheek, where he had slapped her. Her eyes glinted the way daggers do when held in the light just so. "I am not a common whore for you to throw away!" she shrieked, fingers clenching and unclenching in her embarrassment. "What have I been but true to you in all things, Sasuke-sama?!"

Sasuke stood over her, the twilight casting shadows all around his form so that he appeared to be coming from and entering into darkness simultaneously. His shaded gaze sent chills racing all over Temari, and she shuddered, but she tried to make it look as though fury made her tremble instead of fear.

"Do you really wish to create further insult to yourself?" he asked coldly. "Did you think only that Hyuuga saw you kill Mizuki? How you allowed that blade to fly straight into his heart?"

Temari looked briefly beyond Sasuke too see Kabuto leaning against the side of a tent pole, readjusting his glasses. Heat flared through her, but Sasuke's voice kept her attention.

"What was it you said to me, Temari? 'I wouldn't have gotten caught.' You proved yourself a liar." Stooping over, Sasuke took hold of her chin, tipping her head back so that their eyes met, letting his lips hover teasingly over hers. Temari's heart raced against her will, and she hated herself, but hated _him _even more…

Then he broke the spell that months of heartless mating and subordination had cast over Temari, pushing her forcefully away from him so that she landed on the ground. She felt Gaara and Kankurou approach her, but she shoved away Kankurou's attempt to help her up, not daring to so much as glance toward Gaara for fear that his eyes would hold shame – or worse, pity.

When she turned her eyes back to where Sasuke had stood, he was gone, disappeared into his tent. Kabuto was following him, but the pale-haired man stopped on the entrance, looked over his shoulder, and smiled at her. Then he entered the tent, seeing Sasuke standing in the center of the small space.

"I was wondering when you would rid yourself of her," he commented in a casual tone.

Sasuke did not reply right away. After several moments of staring at the flame flickering within the lantern illuminating the tent, he murmured, "Bodily recreation is good for maintaining health. That was why she stayed as long as she did."

"And her brothers?"

"Gaara and Kankurou are useful additions to the clan," nodded Sasuke, "and as far as numbers go, so is Temari. They will all stay. But I shall not take her to bed again."

Kabuto shrugged one shoulder. "As you see fit. And now?"

"And now we continue as we always have." Sasuke sat cross-legged on his bed mat, looking not at Kabuto but at a place just behind him. "It doesn't matter if I have a woman or not. I can take that damn compound before the year's through."

Kabuto studied his leader with a critical eye. Uchiha Sasuke was like any other Japanese son; obsessed with honor and rightfulness. He kept an air about him that shunned others out and kept Sasuke closed off and abrasive the way he preferred. But Kabuto knew that it was all for a reason – the iron hand, the determination to defeat the China clan of Long, and the casting off of all other people.

"Itachi has not made any move, has he, Sasuke-sama?"

Sasuke did not react strongly to this question, but he brought a hand up to shade his eyes as though the soft lamplight could possibly be too bright for him. "No," he replied at length. "Nor will yet. I have not completed my task."

"It has been more than ten years since he left," observed Kabuto. "Having never met the man, I cannot say, but surely your older brother would have settled somewhere comfortable enough that returning here would be inconvenient for him?"

"Itachi is no man." Sasuke's hand came down, slapping down on his bed mat with an audible sound. "He is a coward…a gutless son who murdered the whole of his family for sport. All but me."

Kabuto had heard this story long ago. "And he said he would not return until such a time when you obtained the land of the Long family which your father fought for," he concluded.

"I'm no fool. I know this battle or feud or what shall you call it is meaningless between that woman Tenten and I." The tension, at first visible in Sasuke's body, now seemed to ease and he lowered himself upon the mat. "She fights to protect what she sees as belonging to her 'family.' There is right in that."

He paused, staring at the canvas ceiling of his tent as though it would spell out his words for him. "But I cannot afford to ignore her. I do not remember Itachi's personality well enough to believe him, but nor can I risk doubting him. So I will do what I must."

And Kabuto understood that "must" included stealing the land away from the Long clan. "Do you not see it as some kind of fate between you and the Long – for both of your fathers to die on the same night…"

"It's ironic. Nothing more," Sasuke said tersely, his dark eyes narrowing. "I'm more interested in that Hyuuga stranger. I am aware that my family had a tie with his years ago, but I don't know the details. Why he has come to fight for the Longs is a mystery, other than that he is tracing _his _father's footsteps." A slow smirk dominated his usual expressionless face for a moment. "It seems we are all trapped in the tales of our forebears. For Itachi to be lured here, I will take this wretched land."

"Would you return to Japan if you were not so honor-bound to avenge your own clan?" inquired Kabuto, keeping his voice carefully curious.

"Yes." Sasuke said so with little to no hesitation, indicating that he had given the matter several degrees of thought. He did not continue except to say, "Tenten will expect us to take a time for rest. We need to surprise her, so tomorrow we will strike again."

Kabuto winced. "My lord," he began, using the title he reserved for when he needed to be extra careful with his words, "your men are wounded. If we go into battle tomorrow, the most likely result is that the members of the Long family who did not fight yesterday will easily kill us."

"We've no choice!" exclaimed Sasuke, raising his voice for the first time in the duration of the conversation, shooting Kabuto a ferocious look. "Do not play the weakling with me. If I am to end this war of my father's, I must act with unpredictability."

Kabuto heard, despite Sasuke's words, a hint of toleration in his leader's voice. "Sasuke-sama," he went on, "if I may?"

Sasuke reclined again, throwing an arm over his tired eyes, which was as much permission to proceed as Kabuto was going to get.

"I…I understand your need for a new turn of events. I have a suggestion…"

* * *

"Ha...Haruno Sakura-san?"

Sakura swiveled around to see a cloaked figure standing before her. Unsure, she did not answer right away but was not wary of danger in the bustling marketplace she stood in. She did not know that voice that had spoken her name, but she knew it to be female. Pushing berry-colored haired behind her ear, she readily called, "Yes? I am she."

The hood of the stranger's cloak fell back, and a girl no older than Sakura met her eyes. It was easy to see that she was shy, her dark hair falling forward to partially shield a good view of her face. The girl's fingers worked together, twisting and untwisting, but most often coming to touch at the girl's lower lip. Sakura would not have known her at all if the eyes staring at her with not whiter than summer clouds.

As white as Neji's.

At once, she fell to her knees in the marketplace. "Hyuuga Hinata-sama!" she exclaimed, feeling horribly self-conscious in the presence of a woman of stature such as Sakura knew this girl to be.

"No, please!" Covering her head again, Hinata rushed forward to pick up Sakura from the ground. "If you treat me to specially, I will be discovered! I was forced to slip out of the Hyuuga compound dishonestly."

"But why?" asked Sakura breathlessly, her heart galloping. "What can I possibly do to be of help to the Hyuuga clan's heir?"

Hinata gave Sakura a small, timid smile. This was the one, thought Sakura, who had been chosen to lead the venerably Hyuuga clan over Neji? "Actually, you can do much. You see, I worry for my cousin."

The old, fiery pain that Sakura had been shocked into forgetting now returned with full force, and Sakura felt the depression settle over her uncomfortably. "Hinata-sama…please." As people pushed past, wiggling around them, she shook her head. "Remembering Neji-san is…it is difficult for me now. I do wish to be of assistance to you, but for a dead man—"

"That's just it!" said Hinata with desperation in her voice. "My father told you Neji-nii-san is dead because we were told at the Hyuuga compound that he is no longer alive. But the truth is that we have heard nothing to say that Neji-nii-san is actually dead; nothing of his was found on the shores of either Japan and or China.."

Confused, Sakura blinked. "I do not understand your meaning, Hinata-sama."

The clan heiress pressed her lips together once before furthering, "I know it makes little sense. But hear and try to comprehend this: my cousin Neji is a very strong man. So strong that even today I do not know why my father named me this clan's next leader above him." The honesty surprised Sakura. "And that strength would not be easily killed. I do not believe a single ocean storm would bring death to Neji, Sakura-san.

"My father, I believe, was wrong to send Neji to China. But it was what he was raised for; he had daily lessons in the language, he knows much of their culture, and the recent state of affairs in their government. Yet not once did he wish to actually go there." Hinata breathed deeply, as though saying so much at once was causing her difficulty in getting enough air. "The truth is, Sakura-san, my father Hiashi is very bitter toward China. Do you know why my uncle and Neji's father, Hizashi, was sent there in the first place?"

Still stunned that Hyuuga Hinata had risked so much simply to find and speak to her, Sakura shook her head wordlessly.

Hinata's moonlike eyes turned slightly down at the corners, sadness alighting her gentle features. "Though you may not be aware, the Hyuuga clan has not been on this land very long. We have only been here for twenty-seven years. My grandfather purchased our compound from a family known as Uchiha."

"Uchiha?"

Hinata nodded. "As you probably have noticed, we of the Hyuuga must rely on the efforts of others to survive. My grandfather was tricked by the Uchiha into buying the land – it is infertile and bears absolutely no food, try as we might to use the soil.

The Uchiha sold the land because they wished to relocate to China and tried to settle there. Yet they met with a man name Tao Huang, the owner of much land on the Chinese eastern coast, and that man refused to sell. It is said he was protective of what he owned as the land had been granted to him by the Emperor at the time. So the Uchiha clan began to do battle with the Chinese clan of Long."

"Long!" Sakura's pressed a fist over her heart. "That's who Neji—"

"Yes. And when my grandfather heard of the war there, he wished to gain some revenge over the Uchiha selling to him falsely. He sent Hizashi, my father's twin brother, to fight alongside the Longs. Uncle Hizashi took Neji with him, to experience a different world – whether he meant China or the world of battle, I do not know. Hizashi died there, and Neji was sent back to us by the Longs.

"Today," Hinata concluded, "Neji was sent there as his father was sent there; to fight in his father's legacy for the battle that has recommenced between Long and Uchiha."

Sakura glanced to the side. "And Neji died before he reached their foreign shore." But the words were different now, something about their meaning had changed.

Softly and so minutely that it was hardly perceptible, Hinata smiled. "Do you truly believe that is so, Sakura-san?"

Sakura stared back, brow furrowed with intense concentration upon a thought lingering in her mind. Before long, however, she produced a smile of her own. Her clear green eyes shone brightly in the evening sun. "Thank you, Hinata-sama. Please," she said with a bow, "do not meet with trouble on my account."

Hinata bowed her head in acknowledgement of her kindness, and then swept away, small, pale fingers clutching the edge of her hood to secure it.

Sakura spun, facing the distant seashore where the sun made its swift descent. It seemed so attainable now, that vast ocean that had carried Neji away from her.

What difference the words of one woman to another could make!

_To Be Continued…_


	7. The Trade

**Author's Notes: **_So the chapter is a bit early this week! I was excited to get it out there, although I'm worried I'll have trouble writing the next one. Hopefully not! I do so hope that you all enjoy this chapter and that I'll surprise one or two of you. _

_Also, a note to all LiveJournal users: I have added a fan fiction journal there under the name **nessiegg **so feel free to look around. Right now, only this story is there but more will be added. Just so you know, everything comes to _first

_Happy reading!_

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto and I am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Seven

By Nessie

"It'll only be troublesome for you. I said I can—"

"_I _said you can't," Tenten's sharp tone interjected the man speaking with her. "Who ever heard of a strategist with a broken leg actually fighting?"

Shikamaru scratched the back of his head in annoyance. He was sitting in a chair on the front walkway of his family's small in-compound house, and Tenten had come to talk at his behest. As difficult as he was finding it to be polite with his leg propped out in front of him in mockery of his mostly-immobile body, he was trying very hard. "I know you're expecting another Uchiha attack. We all are, Tenten. And you _know _that you need me."

"There's always your father." Tenten's brow furrowed as she weighed her options. "He is a decent planner himself."

"Decent won't beat that Kabuto guy Sasuke has on his side. He takes notes on all of us." Shikamaru angled a look past her at Neji, who was watching their argument. "He probably even has a couple of lines about you already, Hyuuga Neji."

"I don't care. Relay a few defense patterns to Chouji if you find me so incompetent, Shikamaru." Tenten gave him a smile to show she wasn't serious. "I will not have you dying in battle when that scenario is easily preventable."

Shikamaru stared into his leader's eyes, the effect being solemn black on serious brown. "You know my entire family would die for you." His tone held the heaviness of one indebted for life.

Tenten turned away from him, leaving him to his rest. "But you know I would never have you do so," she called, the wind carrying her words to her friend's ears.

Neji followed her away from Shikamaru's family's house, remaining silent until they were well out of earshot. "You were very cross with him," he said, invariably recalling the harsh training sessions of his youth. Shikamaru, he was sure, had never been beaten with a wooden sword for failing to block a strike.

"Not cross. Insistent," corrected Tenten, walking along the compound's main path with him. She wore boyish clothes again today, loose enough to be caught in the breeze and show an ankle there or elbow here. "To be honest, Neji, I fear for our victory without Shikamaru. His intellect has saved us from destruction on more occasions than I prefer to think of."

It felt strange to him that she was admitting her doubt to him, but he chose not to say so. "To rely on one man—"

"That is what we _do_ in this clan," she told him sternly, her eyes rushing to his so quickly that he felt seared by the heat of her gaze. "If China bears any similarity to Japan, it is in this – people are afraid of depending on one another. My father taught me that may be the one high flaw of my homeland, Neji." She was still looking at him, Neji thought, but not seeing him. For all he knew, he was a shapeless mass that represented her past in her eyes. "How can I not feel all forms of affection for this family of mine," Tenten continued, "knowing that as far as blood goes, I am alone? And were they so inclined, they could throw me from this compound and claim it as theirs?"

The image had Neji tightening his jaw, tension coiling every muscle he had. Feeling the need to awaken her from her black reverie, he laid a hand upon her shoulder. Tenten started, and he pulled away as her eyes focused again.

"But they wouldn't, my clan." She looked somewhat shocked, as though even imagining such a reality was a dishonor. "What we have made together – this place – it ensures that."

Neji stared. "Are you well?" he asked after a moment.

"I did not mean to…" She trailed off, passing a hand over her face as though to wipe the weariness from it. "I have been concerned about another attack. I didn't sleep last night. Instead, I kept awake and tried to understand why I have behaved the way I have toward you, Neji. I have not yet treated you with the respect you deserve for leaving your home and coming here to this war of ours."

This surprised him. He had expected a few things from the daughter of Long, but Neji certainly had not suspected either a confession of concern or of realized wrong. "Tenten," he started, but she held up a hand to quiet him.

"Truly, I am sorry. Please accept my apology." She surprised him further still when she took a step back and bent at the waist in a nearly perfect imitation of a Japanese bow.

Neji did not know what to do for a moment. Was he to actually bestow forgiveness upon the woman he was technically serving? The unpredictable change of status was enough to give him a headache. Treading carefully, he only replied with a low-spoken, "My forgiveness is yours."

Seemingly pleased, Tenten straightened and offered him a smile…like the one she gave Gai or Lee or had even just shown Shikamaru. Neji felt an odd, unfamiliar pressure in his chest.

"Will you come with me?" Tenten asked then. Her tone was not quite so formal now but still deliberately polite. "I've something to show you."

Neji nodded but said nothing. It was true that she astonished him more every day. Whether she was training or fighting or speaking to another in her clan, Tenten lived with so much exuberant passion that he was beginning to find himself exhausted at the end of each day by just being near her.

And it wasn't entirely untrue to say that he enjoyed it.

She led him toward the main house. He thought for a moment that they would enter and she would show him some singularly important treasure of hers, more to bring herself comfort rather than he. Instead, Neji followed Tenten around the large structure, stepping through tall grass where weeds and blossoms grew wildly.

"We try not to tamper with nature in this section of the compound," she explained, guessing correctly at his confusion for this unkemptness when all the rest of her home was so neat. "Here, we surrender the earth and all within it to time."

"Why?"

"Because," Tenten replied, unexpectedly taking hold of his arm and leading him over a wide brook by showing him stones that would have been unseen by a stranger's gaze, "this is where we lay our honored ones to rest."

As she spoke the words, an area clearer than the rest came into view. Nestled in between trees older than either of them were several graves. All were perfectly aligned according, Neji presumed, to immediate family. The center row consisted of original Long graves and, sadly, held more than any other row. The front memorial stone – and the newest in the entire cemetery – belonged to Long Tao Huang, Tenten's father.

"This is the final resting place of all who were ever entered into the clan of Long since Tao Huang took leadership," Tenten said softly. Her hushed tones denoted reverence, and Neji remained wordless. "As you can see, there have been many deaths within our walls." She gestured to the stone just beyond her father's. "The first woman to be buried here was my mother, only hours after my birth."

Neji spotted the name _Mirayami Junko _etched into the stone. Each grave was so solemn and gray but each one was also livened up by a colorful array of freshly-laid flowers. Tenten went on to tell him that certain families within the compound had various weekly chores to tend to the graves. The one whose family name was originally Yamanaka had a duty to replace old flowers with new ones every seven days.

"And here is what I want you to see," Tenten furthered, beckoning him to follow her to a grave slightly removed from the rest but no less cared for. "I should have brought you here when you first arrived." This stone had a particular difference from the others in that it had been painted white. Brilliant violets sprayed the foot of it, highlighting the well-written Japanese calligraphy:

_Hyuuga Hizashi. Friend and warrior._

Neji felt like he had been thrown into a December lake, his blooding running cold beneath every inch of his flesh. He felt Tenten's gaze upon him, the heat of it combating the iciness, making him feel ill.

"_There is no grave here for me to even remember my brother by…and thus I have no brother…and thus I have no brother's son." _

His father's soul, long departed from the world, had been freed from his body here in China when he had so long suspected otherwise. What difference, Neji could not help but wonder, would it have made for his life if only Hizashi's body had returned to Japan along with him? All at once, something akin to anger filled him, but he did not feel at all upset. He felt _calm_, of all things, but it was a sort of calm that grew throughout his entire spirit, seeming fit to rip him apart. Was this only a feeling of relief? Or perhaps even gratitude?

Perhaps that, Neji allowed. It had been a very long time since he had felt at all grateful to anyone.

"Are you alright?" Tenten's voice, strong but quiet, cut through his thoughts. His eyes shot to hers, and she tilted her head in consideration of him. "You look so _surprised_, Neji. Did you believe us to be so barbaric as not to bury him?"

"I do not remember any funeral," replied Neji, his tone coming out with a choked quality, and he hurriedly cleared his throat.

"In the compound, we rarely allow children to attend memorial services," Tenten explained sagely. "I was nearly not permitted to attend _my _father's funeral. It is feared that because they are untrained to control their grief children will disrupt a soul's departure. Hyuuga Hizashi is still today one of the most well-regarded men to ever have set foot within this home of ours, second only to my own father." Tenten made sure he was looking at her with her next words. "Your father is a hero in this place, Neji. I have ensured that. You now have the right to know that he was cut down by Uchiha Fugaku – the original leader of the Uchiha clan and the father of Uchiha Sasuke."

Neji's hands curled into fists. He could think of absolutely nothing to say that would truly express the utter relief he felt simply by knowing that his father – for whom his mother had committed suicide, for whom he had been forced to grow up neglected – had been properly buried for the last fifteen years.

"Hold out your sword – in its sheath."

Neji eyed her warily. One didn't just "hold out" their sword in any culture. "Why?"

"Please," was all she said, busying herself with untying her own weapon from her hip.

Neji did as his leader bade him, and within moments he was extending his blade with its plain black sheath toward her. In turn, Tenten held out her finely-covered sword, the sapphire veins in the silver sheath catching his attention as it had when he had first seen her wear it. In truth, he had attempted to forget the strange blade but his mind had been drawn back to it only in the moments he had not been thinking of Tenten.

"This sword belonged to your father." Though the words caught him off guard, Neji was more bewildered by the sudden tremor that racked her voice. If he was honest, he had half-expected such a fact. The familiarity of the sword alone had sparked the notion already. "He used it," Tenten went on nervously, "to fight for my clan. When he lay dying, he asked my father to hold it for him until such a time when you were ready to receive it. Five years later, my father called me to his deathbed and said that it was now I who should hold it.

"When you arrived here, I at first wondered if I should not have bestowed this upon you straightaway. Yet I waited. After you saved Gai's life, I knew it was time to give it to you. I stalled, however." And here a small smile crept along Tenten's lips. "After all, I've had it with me for ten years. Changing weapons is rather difficult for me."

Breathing deeply, Neji took in all of her words. "Why now do you show me such esteem, Tenten? My mere presence disturbed you only days ago."

"Days ago I was more focused on the present than the past. I made a vow to my father that I will complete his assignment and give you what is rightfully yours." Tenten's brown eyes gleamed in the high afternoon sun that somehow made her entire being appear brighter – as though the day shone for her. Bowing her head, she offered him the blade with both hands. "Please take it and release me of my promise."

He grasped it slowly and at once felt a shiver course through the muscle in his forearm. There was history in this sword of his father's, and he felt it inside of him now the way he was sure she had felt it in her. Indeed, when he lifted it from her hands, he thought he saw Tenten exhale with the alleviation of duty.

Neji surprised her when he too held his sword out to her. "It's yours," he said, "if you will have it. It was a gift from my cousin, Hinata, the one who is to rule my clan prior to her marriage. It was forged by the finest smiths in western Japan."

Tenten weighed it in her palms, approving of its lightness and plain, non-distracting appearance. She was not a woman of extravagance, Neji saw. "Thank you," she murmured and brought her eyes once more to his. "Please understand now, Neji. I feel remorse for having involved you in this battle before fully informing you of its details. But now I have lain everything I know bare to you. You are connected to me – and you are connected to Sasuke in the very same way that I am. The actions of our fathers have bound us unalterably."

A light shone from within her now. Neji found he was mesmerized by it, and it was as if the truth that he had so long been denied was forcing him even closer to Tenten. Close enough, it seemed, to perhaps never move away again.

"Excuse me," Tenten murmured, already tying Neji's gift onto her hip, "I'll leave you to pay your respects."

Hardly knowing what he was doing, Neji began to reach for her. "Tenten." He caught her wrist, and she swiveled, her eyes wide. "You can stay if—"

"_Tenten_!" They both stepped away from each other as Lee approached. When he was near enough he said in hushed tones, "Please, if you will both come with me. I do not wish to speak of matters upon the burial site."

Tenten followed without question, letting Neji decide his own actions. He mentally pledged to return and pay proper respects to his father's grave and took off after them. When they reached the line beyond the cemetery alcove where the grass grew tidily, Lee stopped in his tracks and faced them with a serious expression.

"The Uchiha," he began.

In unison, Tenten and Neji reached for their newly-traded swords. Lee rushed to continue.

"You misunderstand; there will be no fight." The green-clad youth looked more troubled than Neji had yet seen him, and Lee stepped forward to take both of Tenten's hands in his. "It is nothing you may have expected. I too thought another battle would arise. At the very least I thought Sasuke would be interested in you, Neji."

Neji acknowledged the possibility with a nod of his head. "And yet?"

"They did not come to fight. Two of them are here, Kabuto and Gaara. Although I believe Gaara is only there to help Kabuto in case we attack him," Lee mentioned, getting briefly sidetracked. "But that is unimportant. They have brought a…proposal. They are speaking to Gai shi-fu outside the gate now."

"What proposal?" asked Tenten as a faint line appeared between her eyebrows. Neji understood her confusion; it was unlikely that even in her wildest dreams she had expected the Uchiha clan to simply want to talk.

Neji saw Lee clench her fingers between his. "Well…_a_ _proposal_."

It took a long moment, but realization slowly dawned on Tenten's face. "Lee," she uttered, a foreign note entering her voice. "You mean…"

"Their proposition is this: You can marry Uchiha Sasuke." Lee and Neji both saw her flinch sharply, as though the idea was a hand that had just slapped her. "Marry, and cease the fight you both find to be pointless. Otherwise, Kabuto has stated that we all can expect to fight until the end of our days without hope for peace, along with a needless loss of life." Even as he spoke, Lee's dark eyes seemed to dig into Tenten's tortured gaze, searching for a way to help her.

She inhaled erratically as though breathing was difficult, and it was Tenten who now held Lee's hands so tightly that her knuckles had blanched. "Marry an Uchiha," she managed to whisper. Even to Neji's newcomer ears the idea sounded nothing less than preposterous.

And there it was again, that pressure in his chest which had no meaning that he could identify. He absently brought a hand up to the part of his shirt that covered his chest, his fingers clawing into it.

Across the way on the other side of the compound, a short laugh rose up in the air. All three of the small party looked over to see Shikamaru speaking to Chouji, amusement at something his friend had said flitting across his face.

Neji turned his attention back to Tenten just in time to see her eyes flick to Shikamaru's injury.

And somehow he knew she was thinking of not only broken legs but the fate of her entire family.

_To Be Continued…_


	8. Right

_Author's Notes: A little late but I hope you'll enjoy the chapter nonetheless. I've been wanting to say that I really appreciate every bit of feedback I have received, it truly means a lot to me. Thanks, guys! I hope you continue to like the fic._

Disclaimer: I do not have Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Eight

By Nessie

Neji kept his distance from the Long clan, waiting for a signal of some sort that would let him know when it would once again be safe to approach. As far as he could tell, he had seen the last of Tenten, Gai, and Lee; the three of them had retreated into the seclusion of the main house immediately following the departure of Kabuto and Gaara. It was not his place to question the way they would proceed, and he feared that asking after the goings-on would be stepping out of bounds.

It was now midnight – nearly fourteen hours after Kabuto's impromptu message had first reached Long ears. Neji occupied himself by training with his new sword…Tenten's sword…_his_ _father's _sword. The weight, fashion, and condition indicated decades of use – this weapon was, after all, much older than he was. The very history behind it daunted Neji, and the fact that the last man to wield it had been Hyuuga Hizashi…it was enough to make him wonder what right he had to carry it. Birthright did not seem a worthy enough reason.

He stared at the blade now, sitting upon a low stone wall that served as a partition between the main house territory and the rest of the compound. The sword glinted powerfully in the moonlight that fell over the young man. Sapphire and steel; ice and rock. Not, Neji reflected, unlike the entire Hyuuga family. And yet, the description was not one he could attribute to the memories he had of his father. Hizashi had always been a friendlier type of Hyuuga. He had held an amount of rage and bitterness toward those that wronged him – to not would be inhuman – but he also had possessed a far less abrasive personality than that of his father or older twin brother.

Neji's eyes narrowed. Were Hizashi alive today, would he see his son as more like himself, or more like Hiashi? Perhaps it was better that he not know the answer.

A sound from behind had him turning around on the wall so that his legs hung off the opposite side. Tenten stood before him now, his heightened position causing her head to come up only to his knees. She looked weary, dressed in fresh but wrinkled clothes, and there was a hard set to her jaw that spoke of long-lasting tension. Her hair was perfectly arranged in the twins buns she favored, as though she had recently restyled it before coming to him.

Neji sent her a silent question. She replied by taking a short jump and sitting beside him on the wall. Neji took slow, deep breaths while he waited for her to say something. Time passed, and cicadas chirped, and he started to think she would only inflict wordlessness upon him when a nearby house lantern went out and seemingly prompted her into speech.

"I suppose my choice is clear." The statement came out in the softest of murmurs, requiring Neji to strain to hear her over nature's night music. And then she reverted back into quiet, as though the brief speaking she had decided to do was involuntary.

"Actually," Neji replied evenly, "it isn't."

She shifted, resting her hands on the rear edge of the wall and leaned back to see the stars shining down. "No?"

"I don't know you," he went on. "And I have been here only three weeks. How am I to know what choice you have made concerning the Uchicha?"

"You have seen me fight," she began.

"Fighting reveals the will, not the mind." Neji pierced her shaded profile with a pale stare. "Tenten. You are stalling. If you've no wish to tell me what you—"

"I shall marry him."

Neji felt his blood cool; he had expected it, as she had said, but he had not entirely believed she would give in to the plan. There was different meaning in the idea, now that she had spoken aloud her agreement. Before his eyes, he saw Tenten unfold, as though she were shedding an outer layer of herself to give dominance to a newer woman…one that was indifferent to her personal desires only because she had to be.

Slowly, the daughter of Long turned her head to meet his gaze with her own, and he could no longer see what she was thinking. The woman who had so easily let her thoughts live in her eyes had changed her ways, and Tenten was a mystery to him once again.

"This marriage will be nothing but inauspicious," she muttered, seeming to speak to herself rather than Neji. "But only to myself. My clan will benefit, don't you see?"

Neji felt has though his body had been wrought from tension. Taking a wild guess at her, he answered, "I see a clan leader trying to forget that she is worthy of happiness."

Her mouth fell open in surprise, and his eyes were momentarily drawn to her lips but attraction was not enough to distract him from her response. "That isn't true, Neji. Peace will come from this wedding. I will have not only happiness for myself but for my whole family, and there will even be goodness in it for China. One less battle to worry about is another moment's gladness for my country." Her eyes had temporarily lit with her notions, but now they dimmed again. "Even if it means I live in lifelong dislike of my husband, and he of me."

"Can there not be an ulterior motive in Sasuke's proposal?" questioned Neji. "Have you even thought of that?"

"Of course." She would have snapped at him before, he thought, but now she spoke plainly. That was not the spirited woman he had come to work for. "I have spoken with Gai and Lee, and the three of us agree that this compromise is in the best interest for all involved. You too, Neji." A smile materialized on her face, but Tenten still looked as forlorn as she had when she first approached him. "After the wedding, this war of ours will officially end, and you can return to Japan."

Neji had not considered that point yet, and in doing so now remained silent. But his kept watching her until she began to physically sink beneath his gaze. She slumped her shoulders and cast down her gaze. It shot back up, however, when her hand brushed Neji's. She instantly tilted, and Neji instinctively shot out an arm to pull her upright so she would not tumble off of the wall.

Her lips that had so interested him a minute ago came near to touching his, and both froze, breath mingling between them. The summer night suddenly seemed to grow hundreds of degrees warmer. Neji could hear his blood in his ears, rushing like the tide. Tenten reacted first, distancing herself from him as his hand fell away from her.

"There is nothing to fear," Tenten concluded only slightly unsteadily, starting to slide down from the wall. Her hair shimmered in the starlight with the movement. With her feet on the ground, she suddenly froze and looked back – Neji had grasped her wrist and now held her in place.

His white eyes were questioning again, but this time he asked with his voice. "Can you do it?" The inquiry hung between them like a transparent veil, and it had to be Tenten who would reach out and rip it from between them.

"I must." So saying, she tugged herself free of Neji's grip, unconsciously clasping the place he had touched with her other hand. "And I will."

Neji remained on the wall as he watched her go; walking back to the main house where she would surely fall into bed from the sheer exhaustion of her weighty work as leader. He too felt held down by his position, but the Hyuuga knew he had already gone beyond his place by questioning her.

Making a fist, he gave one, swift punch to the top of the wall. The stone caved a little, leaving a shallow dent. It wasn't enough to make Neji feel any less unsettled.

* * *

Brown met black in a murky, less-than-pleasant combination. Sasuke's scowl was a match for Tenten's, but their tones were pleasant enough as they spoke just outside the front wall of the Long compound. Gai and Lee were at Tenten's side, Kabuto at Sasuke's, and all of them felt enshrouded by some kind of devious shadow.

From above them, Neji stood on the inside scaffold, watching the event with Shikamaru whom he had assisted in getting to the top of the wall. The two of them looked down with narrowed eyes, matching expressions of disapproval. They were not given so much as a glance by any down below.

"I demand no extravagances from you," Tenten was saying. "With both our parents dead, we've already forsaken much tradition. Yet we should preserve what we can."

Sasuke gave a curt nod. "I agree with you." But it was said tersely, as though he could not comprehend the words he was speaking. "Forget about a dowry, I don't need one. If you prepare some wine—"

"I shall," interposed Tenten sharply.

"Then we can arrange to meet here," continued Sasuke as though she had said nothing. "Kabuto has been my go-between. Have you any objections to add?"

Tenten shook her head. "None but that you will not have say over the proceedings at any point in time within this compound. It is enough that you will be sheltered here…with me." She spoke the last with some difficulty.

Again, Sasuke bobbed his head. "And the rest of the land?"

"Divide it among your own as you will. It is as good as yours now." A sudden dagger-like quality entered Tenten's eye. "But they will _respect _it, or be dismissed. Is that clear?"

"To think," muttered Sasuke, "if your father had done this for mine, so much might have been avoided." Pretenses dropped, he straightened his shoulders. "I did not expect you to adhere to this." There was a note of disappointment lingering in his tone.

"Nor I of you," returned Tenten before going businesslike. "Tomorrow then?"

"Yes."

Neji watched her turn and reenter the compound – and that was all. It was done. How, he could not truly imagine; but he knew by the identical looks of concern on the faces of Gai and Lee, the way Kabuto and Sasuke spoke in hushed tones as they left, and finally by the way Tenten paused once she was out of Sasuke's sight, that the marriage was truly going to happen.

Tenten proceeded back to the main house with Gai, Tsunade and Jiraiya joining them. Lee waited a moment to motion up to Neji that he should follow. After helping Shikamaru down the ground, he went with Lee in perfect silence.

It was only after the group of six had passed the partition where Neji had spoken with the clan's leader early that morning that the Hyuuga saw something he should have expected but had not.

Tenten looked at Gai, her eyes bright but not wet. She trembled from head to foot and murmured something inaudible to his ears. Lee rushed forward as Gai pulled Tenten toward him, resting her head against his broad shoulder as though she were a child.

Neji stepped up in time to hear Lee talking. "The choice was yours, Tenten. You've made a sound decision."

"I'm a fool," replied Tenten, looking at her friend with only serious eyes. Those eyes went to Neji's. "I suppose I thought I was to be happy in my marriage one day."

Neji stood still, knowing of nothing he could say or do which would alleviate any of the unhappiness polluting the air. His life had been full of events of convenience – arranged marriages, blood oaths…preplanned destinies. That Neji had survived his last trip to China had been one of the few inconveniences that the Hyuuga family had ever experienced.

Of course, Neji reminded himself duly, it was an "inconvenience" caused years ago by the Uchiha clan that had brought Hyuuga Hizashi here, and now Neji himself.

Even knowing all of this, that perhaps there was more meaning in his being in China at this time and in this moment, the white-eyed young man could find no courage to approach the close group of companions in front of him and offer any opinion. And he had been so full of opinions the night before.

"_After the wedding, this war of ours will officially end, and you can return to Japan."_

Tenten's voice rung through him, the harshness of the words slashing his mind so that it dripped confusion. He was used to feeling unwanted, but Neji had never before felt unneeded. He was fully aware of his necessary place within the Hyuuga family, but he had been raised for the sole purpose of fighting for the clan he had long thought to be responsible for his father's death. To arrive in China and be told after only one fight that his services were no longer needed was not only disheartening; it made him feel purposeless.

And still, watching as Tenten shook in the arms of her surrogate father somehow felt much more important to him than whether or not he had a right to be in China at all.

Neji decided it would be best if he did not wonder why.

* * *

On the other side of China's eastern sea, a woman stood on the deck of a sailing ship. Her rose-colored hair was tousled by the wind, an order of passage signed by Hyuuga Hinata clenched in her lightly quivering hand. She knew nothing of the land she was heading toward, and the land she was leaving had swiftly lost its significant to her.

She felt that it was in this journey she would discover why she was living – or who she was living for. With that in mind, Sakura allowed herself to smile as she thought of Neji.

_To Be Continued…_


	9. Fortune and Blood

_Author's Notes: Well, here we are at nine chapters and I've only been working on this fic since January. This kind of updating is a record for me, but alas, I'm here to let you know that there may be a delay in next weekend's chapter, friends. And possible the following week's. But I wanted to explain in advance; I'm currently in the cast of a play and our double-weekend performances are coming up, so it's crunch time and I will rarely be at home at all this week. And I could be worried over nothing and the chapter may happen as scheduled, but I wanted to inform everyone, just in case. (I did say upon the first post that it might happen!)_

_However, I hope this news does not keep you from enjoying this chapter and the rest of the fic. I'm still having fun writing it. Take care, NejiTen fans!_

_Edit: The first post of this chapter felt a little rushed to me, something affirmed by CASE iN POINT (thanks, darling!) so this is the revised version. Hopefully it is somewhat more appealing._

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Nine

By Nessie

He was not permitted to see Tenten at all the day of the wedding, a message from Lee that was delivered dutifully by Chouji. Neji's irritation was a puzzle to him, but he passed time with extra hours of training before washing quickly and changing clothes in preparation to the ceremony he was to attend that afternoon.

All in all, he was trying not to think about Tenten's wedding. But it proved a difficult task as all he could see when he let his concentration waver for the smallest of instances was her shaking form when she had clutched to Gai yesterday. Neji could imagine – rather, hoped – that she was more at peace with the situation now that she had had all night to contemplate her position and find acceptance for it.

Even so, he felt an incessant tension grip every muscle he had.

After eating a late, light breakfast Neji strode along the grounds of the Long compound, witnessing small developments: red, a color representing fortune, was appearing everywhere, whether it was flags in the trees, petals in the streams, or draperies over doorways. Every building held cooking to be eaten after the ceremony as a celebration of the new-found peace. There were smiles; true, genuine smiles as Neji had not yet seen in this place.

Three people, however, were not smiling. Neji came upon Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Gai standing together and, not wanting to disturb their conversation with his presence, ducked back behind a corner of a bathhouse so as not to be seen. He prepared to move off and try to make himself useful in whatever way he could now that his battle talents were no longer necessary, but Gai's words drifted into his ears and held him to the spot.

"It will be a predicament, explaining the change within the clan to the Empress."

"Wu Ze Tian will have to know," came Tsunade's no-nonsense voice, "but how shall I tell her that the leader of the Long clan has taken Japanese into 'his' family?"

Jiraya quipped, "I fear we are in too deep. It is enough that we have denied Tenten's gender and ancestry for so long. Must we do the same for Uchiha Sasuke?"

"It is something that could have us all killed," added Tsunade, "were the Empress to discover our lie. Gai, are you listening? Tenten would be the first to meet execution!"

"Perhaps it's time to consider something else than what we have," came Jiraya's suggestion. At this, Neji's eyes narrowed. "For years, the Long clan has been only small families mingled together inside these walls. Tenten is truly the only one named Long these days." There was a solemn pause. "Gai, I think you should tell Tenten to consider disbanding it."

"Disband it!" Gai exclaimed in disbelief. Neji knew that if he could see the bowl-haired man's face, it would be an expression of utmost affront.

"It is not a wholly unsound idea," Tsunade concurred. "Of course, Tenten would have the final say, but if you were to encourage her—"

"That you can even _speak_ of this clan's disbandment is a mystery to me, Tsunade! You have known Tenten as long as I have, since the second she was born. You have witnessed the loss of both her parents, like I have. And yet you have also seen the name of Long live on in. To me, it is the only name I have! And were we to dissolve that name, Tenten would be left with nothing. This clan – this idea of family – it is the only thing that has seen her life this much of the way through. If it were to be disbanded…my friends, she would surely die!" His stern words concluded, "And she is the last. Would you have all of the Longs gone and leave this land to however many foreigners believe China is easily taken?"

There was a long, awkward silence between the three of them, and Neji seized the opportunity to leave. He doubted that he had gone unnoticed, but Gai, Tsunade, and Jiraiya did not come after him. Words such as _execution, disbandment, _and _last _swam through is head but he pushed them out, knowing that it was not his place to become involved even mentally.

And yet the image of Tenten being killed by a brutal imperial figure caused him to think about what today's events would truly mean for everyone in the Long clan – would that meaning be of peace and happiness or impending death?

Around Neji, red kept rising. Fortune – and blood.

* * *

A small clearing was chosen for the ceremony. There was such little extravagance that one would not have known there was a wedding in progress if not for the decorative banners in the trees bearing the crests of both Uchiha and Long clans.

Sasuke stood in front of the left group amassed in the clearing. He had brought only about ten men from his clan, and they all wore similar expressions that spoke of business rather than any kind of sentiment. The much larger Long clan members were in various states of emotional expression; some were joyful, others mystified at what was about to happen. Those personally closer to the bride – whom had not yet arrived – appeared collectively grim. Ino in particular seemed deeply concerned, and Neji supposed she was simply wondering what she would have done if she had been in a situation anything like Tenten's.

Tenten met the scene with no cheers to greet her; there was only respectful silence, birdsong filtering down from the treetops to announce her. She looked very much as she had on the night Neji had seen her for the first time in fifteen years. Her dress this time was white with a blue sash slanting across her middle. The cut was more modest, and there was no dragon to intimidate an appreciative eye. Her hair was styled more dramatically, bright ribbons matching the sash weaved throughout. Her lips were painted red, her eyelids gold to enhance her brown gaze, and upon her feet she wore scarlet, silken shoes.

Jiraiya and Tsunade, her guardians, strode behind her in place of parents as she walked through the parted crowd. Looking neither left nor right, Tenten remained indifferent to all around her until she reached the place where Neji stood beside Lee. Neji thought she was only regarding Lee at first (she sent her longtime friend the tiniest of nods, as though to reassure him) until her russet eyes turned to his. He did not dare move a muscle lest he signal her in some way against this…because he knew now that his desire for her not to marry Sasuke was truer than anything he had felt since entering the Long compound.

Even now, he wondered what it would be like to continue what had begun the yesterday morning; when her lips, then unhidden by paint and powder, had come so temptingly close to brushing his that even now he could not forget the warmth he had felt.

Bringing himself back to the present, Neji could have sworn she smiled at him – only the slightest upturn of her lips at the corners – but then she was proceeding and did not stop against until she was at Sasuke's right side. She looked back to meet Gai's intense stare for several suffocating moments. At his nearly imperceptible nod, Tenten turned to Sasuke. Neji now saw that she carried a small bottle, and Sasuke held a sizeable goblet veined with gold paint. He extended the cup, and Tenten poured dark wine into it.

Sasuke took the initiative, positioning the cup at his lips and tipping it back. His Adam's apple bobbed, and _now _the Uchiha side of the congregation reacted. Still silent, smirks and smiles appeared, none's so wide as Kabuto's. Neji supposed each of them were thrilled at finally being so close to winning what they and the generation before them had so long fought for.

The groom held out the goblet to his would-be wife, and Tenten took it from his with their eyes locked. There was no pretense of misunderstanding on what was about to occur. Both Sasuke and Tenten knew precisely what was happening, and they knew that they, themselves, were making it happen.

Tenten did not quiver as she had before at the prospect of marrying Sasuke. Her hands were as steady on the cup as they would have been on the hilt of a sword or the tail of an arrow. And there was calmness over all present, eerie and unnatural. The spell that had been cast was broken, however, when Tenten shifted the cup, the rim meeting her rose-colored lips. Now there was tension passing from person to person as though an invisible line was stringing them all together.

After several aching seconds, during which Sasuke watched Tenten with almost harming focus, the cup lowered again, the tiniest fraction. Tenten's lips moved, and while Neji was not close enough to her hear the syllables, his Chinese was good enough to pick out what she was saying.

"I cannot."

The cup was released, and it tumbled, the crimson wine spilling out onto the grass like a bloodstain, splashing on the ceremonial dress of the would-be bride and groom. Simultaneously, too quickly for anyone to truly see, Tenten was taking a dagger from the blue sash she wore, and in one fluid movement, the blade was buried to the hilt in Sasuke's torso. Liquid as deep in shade as the wine ran down to drip off of her powerful fingers. The Uchiha threw back his head in a soundless cry that, if vocalized, would have been filled with hatred toward the woman whom had so truly pierced him.

Her voice quaked when she spoke. Neji felt pained to hear it.

"Your wish, _zhang fu_, will never be granted by me." With a sweeping wrench of her arms, she pulled the dagger out of the man she had mockingly called "husband" and turned…just in time to see Kabuto bowl people down and jump over bodies to land directly in front of the man she had known as her father for the last decade.

Kabuto shaped his hand into a claw, the knuckles bent so that his fingers were curved like talons. Gai reacted, but too slowly, and then Kabuto was clipping pressure points before a lengthy needle – not unlike the one Tenten had shown Neji on his second day in the compound – was protruding from Gai's broad chest. A gash as long as the man's thigh dumped blood from his body.

It was as though he had been marked, that great man. His head turned slowly, and Gai's eyes met those of the person he had so long thought of as his child. Destiny swirled in his swiftly-dimming gaze.

Tenten's dagger clattered to the ground to join the fallen goblet. Neji moved as she did, bypassing her and going for Kabuto, but the glasses-wearing enemy was ahead of Neji by ten steps. He had Sasuke gathered at his side before Neji could get to him through the increasing chaos, and then the Uchiha began one of their marvelous retreats. This time, the entire Long clan hardly regarded them at all as Tenten clutched Gai in her arms, lowering both of them gently to the grass. Tsunade and Jiraiya were on the move, Shikamaru was shouting for order, and all Neji could do was stand uselessly, watching as Lee caught up with Tenten.

Gai hyperventilated, only half-conscious, with his head on Tenten's lap. Tenten was speaking to him, meaningless encouragements while Lee performed emergency aid intended to slow the blood rushed through his teacher's body by Gai's labored breathing.

It was only when the area was cleared enough for Jiraiya and Tsunade to join the trio on the ground that Neji had a clear view of Tenten. Her face was deathly pale, the makeup only emphasizing the lack of color. She appeared stunned, as though the sight of Gai writhing on her knees had caused her ability to speak to fly away from her. Her eyes never left Gai, who was losing an incredible amount of blood at a dangerously fast pace. At Neji feet was strewn the goblet meant to bind Tenten to Sasuke, along with the dagger she had so unexpectedly used against her prospective spouse.

What had been the moment to trigger everything, Neji wondered. There was where so many people's fate had lain. Had Tenten seen Sasuke swallow and come to her senses? Had she prepared for this moment since Kabuto had first come to suggest the unhappy union? Or had Tenten even derived some kind of encouragement from Lee, Gai, or Neji himself as she had walked to Sasuke only minutes before?

Nothing was understandable; facts and images were blurring through Neji's head as though he had never known clarity. Questions clouded his mind like a brocade curtain, making it impossible to see what would be coming next. If Sasuke even survived the attack Tenten had bestowed him with, then there was no doubt to be had that he would return to see retribution realized.

However, he did know that it was not the survival of Uchiha Sasuke that he should concern himself with now. Returning his full attention to the scene ahead of him, Neji saw Tsunade instructing for Gai to be carried inside the main house and put in bed for a thorough examination. Lee and Jiraiya were the ones that moved first. Tenten sat immobile for a full minute, and in that minute Neji never could have taken his mind or eyes from her even if he had wanted to.

She was torn; he could see it. Her hairstyle had been destroyed so that tendrils of chocolate hair and tattered ribbons dripped from her head. The beautiful dress was ripped and shredded in places. The white silk was now stained with deep crimson. Gai's blood. The blood of her teacher, friend, and, by all accounts, father.

It was as though her very life purpose had bled all over her hands. And Neji was sure that Tenten would feel as though she had made the first cut.

It soon happened that all left the clearing to try and restore control. Gai was removed, Lee following to supervise. Only Neji and Tenten were left.

Her head turned to his with the same strange slowness Gai's had. The extreme sorrow she held within her reached out like a wave, washing him in it. He took a step toward her, but Tenten shook her head. Neji could not deny that he wished to touch her, to let her know that she was as solid now as she had been before stabbing Sasuke. He would have held her if would she have let him.

She would not. He remained there. Watching. Always, watching.

The banners around them fluttered, all but one. That one represented the Long clan, the dragon symbol tattered from its place at the base of the tree it had once hung from. The magnificent beast had been split and lay dead upon the earth.

Neji knew he stared at an omen.

_To Be Continued…_


	10. Distraction

**Author's Notes: **_Well, surprisingly enough, I got the chapter out! This chapter was going to be longer, with another long scene, but I decided to split it up to get things in there. There's not much else to say except that everyone should really go to my bio page and look at the links to the **art **for this fic, done by the uber-talented Skyscape. It is an absolutely gorgeous pic of Neji and Tenten. She also did a piece for _Wane, Moon_, another of my NejiTen fics. I strongly encourage you to go see it! Hopefully our fic-art relationship will stay strong!_

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Ten

By Nessie

There was a newcomer in the Uchiha camp. When Sasuke was told this by Kabuto, he half-expected his right-hand man to say that the arrival's name was Death. He felt enough pain and so weak that Sasuke would not have been the least bit surprised.

Instead, Kabuto informed his leader that Gaara, Kankurou, and Temari had found a woman wandering in the forest around the time Sasuke had been in the process of marrying Long Tenten. The three siblings, Sasuke recalled, had opted not to attend the ceremony but spend time together discussing their future after the Uchiha clan had joined with the Long clan.

Of course, this last never happened but Sasuke was injured severely enough to hallucinate as much if his mind was so traitorous. It seemed the makeshift clan's leader still had enough of his senses to comprehend Kabuto's words.

"I've no…" Sasuke had to swallow. The loss of blood he had endured had dried out his throat. "I've no concern for a lost woman."

"I believe you should," Kabuto urged, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "This woman is from Japan. She won't tell us her name. Only Gaara was able to glean a rather interesting fact."

Sasuke closed his eyes. Sometimes Kabuto's habit of delaying his point was frustrating, but he was too weak to properly project irritation at the moment.

"She is looking for the Long compound…in the hopes of meeting with Hyuuga Neji."

At this, Sasuke's eyes flew open. In the commotion of the last few days, he had forgotten entirely the mystery of a warrior from Japan fighting against his clan. Now his curiosity returned tenfold, beating at his brain with an ache that was nearly more excruciating than his chest wound.

He had to be connected, that Hyuuga. If Neji's situation was anything like his or Tenten's, then Sasuke knew Neji's involvement in the battle over land would have commenced prior to his birth. For that, Sasuke would be unable to grudge him.

_Just as none should begrudge me for doing only what I must._

Yet this Sasuke knew to be naïve thinking. Humans were resentful creatures, but Long Tenten…she was strong. And stubborn. That alone had been proven by the bandages wrapped around his torso, by the bloodstains on the floor of his tent.

Again, Sasuke was forced to hold a reluctant admiration for her.

"My lord?"

The surviving Uchiha's mind flashed back the now, and he settled his dark gaze upon Kabuto.

"Shall I bring her to you? Kankurou made the decision to bring her inside the camp; her wandering brought her too near, and he worried she would tell the Longs of our whereabouts if she did find their compound."

Sasuke did not know what made him nod his assent. He had neither the mood nor the strength abide visitors from overseas. But presently Kabuto left and returned, the flap of the tent's opening alerting Sasuke to the coming and going. He struggled to prop him up against a post behind his bed, tightly shutting his eyes against the agony which gripped him by simple movement.

"You will kneel," he heard Kabuto command.

Gazing out, his eyes fell on the unfortunate intruder.

She was young. Underneath a fine later of dust from travel there was a shapely form, wrapped in well-spun, bright cloth that spoke of upstanding if not wealthy heritage. The build was lithe and knew work. Strawberry-colored hair obscured her face like a tangled curtain. Her hands pressed into the ground on which she knelt as her elbows quiver – not from fear, Sasuke gauged, so much as sheer exhaustion.

Very slowly, as though overcome by personal curiosity at just whom it was that she paid homage to, the woman raised her head. The glimmer of light provided by the tent's solitary lantern deepened the hollows of her throat, sharpened the angles of her face. But it was not until she lifted the dark lashes resting on her cheeks that Sasuke's pulse halted in the way Tenten's attack had meant to halt it.

Sasuke had never been on the receiving end of such a look. Rather, he imagined the glower aimed at him was an expression he often wore himself. And the woman, even in her current state of unkempt weariness, was beautiful enough to drive a man to distraction.

At the very least, the Uchiha was fascinated enough by her that he forgot his pain for several moments.

"Your name." The order was out before Sasuke could think twice of it.

She had to swallow before answering, and the flash of her throat had him briefly captivated. "Haruno Sakura." Falling back into silence, she offered no other information willingly.

Sakura? She quite frankly evoked thoughts of his native land's spring blossom, for sure, but the name still sounded too gentle for one with eyes so fierce. "And your business?" he went on, watching her carefully for any signs of a feeling besides loathing for her current position.

She met his gaze directly for the first time, and Sasuke felt a whole new fire brought on by something that was not his injury. "I'm looking for a man."

"Hyuuga Neji."

"Yes."

He saw the way her hands clenched and unclenched, how the emerald orbs of her eyes repeatedly darted from his to other objects inside the tent and back again. Sasuke felt strange with her there. In an effort to fight against the foreign sensation rising within him, he hardened his voice. "You understand I cannot allow you to go to him now. We are enemies, that man and I."

"He is only doing what he was raised to do." Her tone shook in the same way as her body.

Unsympathetic, Sasuke finally took his eyes from her but felt hers on him. "Aren't we all?" he murmured inwardly.

"Please, I am not involved." Her politeness told him that she herself was as green as her eyes. "But I have to see him; I came from Japan! I'll not breathe a word—"

"There's no guarantee of that, Sasuke-sama," said Kabuto from the entryway. Sasuke had long ago lost the capacity to be shocked; otherwise he would have been startled by the sudden vocal interruption since this woman's presence had caused him to totally forget Kabuto. That in itself was new.

Sakura bowed of her own volition this time. "You're Uchiha Sasuke, aren't you? I was told of you. By the Hyuuga family."

Sasuke took a deep breath. The pulsing pain of his wound was growing steadily stronger. "And you came for Neji?" he said on a slight pant that disgusted him.

Sakura lifted her pink-haired head to eye him, and she saw him in some kind of distress, but the blanket that covered him hid his cut from her. "Yes…he is my—"

"Lover?"

If he were stronger, the flush in her face would have given Sasuke cause to smirk. "Friend," she murmured in response to his question. "So you see, my concern for him is great. If you would only grant me your permission to leave, I will seek him out on my own, and I would not trouble you more—"

Gray swam in front of his eyes, followed by an unwelcome starburst as a violent pang racked his whole body. He was faintly aware of himself roughly calling for Kabuto, heard the man shout to him in response, and then…

"_What are you doing? You will kill him with your ignorance_!"

Cool hands fluttered over him, and his senses reawakened to the touch of a woman, the scent of Japanese flowers, and the sound of the feminine strength he had first suspected of her.

He looked just in time to see Sakura thrown back by Kabuto. "Stay away, woman! How dare you approach Sasuke-sama so boldly!"

"Kabuto," he rasped. His eyes, this time, could not be taken from Sakura's cowering form. "Let her come."

It was an unexpected command, but Kabuto did as he was told and Sakura looked up with tears of fright threatening to fall. He watched as she shakily rose from the sprawl Kabuto had forced her into and half-staggered over to his bed. Kabuto subordinately moved aside and Sakura, eyes now dry, looked over him critically.

"You won't let me leave," she murmured. "And you are the enemy of my friend. For what should I—"

She was cut off by the press of Kabuto's dagger against her throat, put there by the bespectacled man who stood enraged at his apparent replacement. "You will heal him," Kabuto told her plainly, a touch of hatred in his voice, "or you shall die."

Sasuke saw that her options were not such that she could ignore, and so the newly-arrived woman only nodded until Kabuto drew the dagger away. She proceeded to staunch the flow of blood with the press of her own sleeve against the wound, ruining the gauzy fabric. Her delicate-looking fingers pulled out the clumsy stitches, and she held the gaping skin together between her forefinger and thumb as she calmly asked for hot water and clean bandages from Kabuto.

Sasuke was only half-conscious at this point, and as Kabuto left to fulfill Sakura's demand, he spiraled down into unconsciousness, thinking of green and pink, of Japan, of women who traveled to a foreign land for the sake of one man.

* * *

When he came to again, it was the middle of the night, and his lantern had gone cold hours ago. Sasuke intantly noticed his much higher level of comfort and craned his neck to see the small, straight stitches that kept his wound tightly closed. Eyes adjusting to the black of his tent, listened to the night birds and insects disturb the evening with their noise.

It was not until a movement very close to him seized his attention that he saw Sakura, sleeping on her side on the ground beside his mattress, facing him. The low rhythm of her even breathing harmonized with the creatures outside, her lips slightly parted with pieces of light hair visible even in the darkness falling over her face.

His sharp gaze took notice of her missing left sleeve – the sleeve she had used to keep him from losing too much blood, he now recalled. A gentle slope of shoulder was revealed. That part of her dress, along with his soiled bandages from before had been removed, and probably burned. He could imagine her directing for the creation of a proper convalescing environment, as even under pressure she had acted clearheadedly.

Who was this woman truly? What "friend" traversed dangerous seas to be with a man who had left her behind? Something rose within Sasuke at the thought, and though it sent a sharp jolt of electric pain up his arm, he reached out and brushed back the hair that had fallen in the woman's face. Sakura did not stir.

He did not need this distraction. There was enough to concern himself with, now that Tenten had disrupted the marriage that had nearly united them. How did that Long clan leader, with all of her stubbornness and pride, intend to find her peace – especially now that Kabuto had used a killing attack on that mentor of hers? Did she _wish _to fight Sasuke until all of her loved ones were dead?

Drifting back into sleep, Sasuke's last waking thought was that he now had two women to deal with; one who would sooner see him dead than allow him to grasp his aim and another who seemed likely to divert his attention until it got him killed.

_To Be Continued…_


	11. Talent and Heart

**Author's Notes**_ We arrive at a turning point. "But Nessie," you say, "what were the big dramatic events before this?" PRELUDES to a turning point, my dears. XD This chapter was difficult for me to write, but I hope you all enjoy it as you can. Take care and thanks for reading!_

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Eleven

By Nessie

The silent hush over the whole of the Long compound was unwelcome, unnatural.

It was as though a sublime hand had passed over the many little houses, quieting the wails of newborns and muting the gossipers whom, at this time of night, would usually be talking of their fate within the clan. There was no need to talk now.

The Longs had what seemed to be a clear view of their fate.

It was inside the main house that the candles burned to throw bronze shimmers over the polished wood floors, forcing on the interior of the building an atmosphere of hopelessness that was inescapable. Neji, a victim to that atmosphere, withstood the suffocating climate between the four, suddenly quite close walls of the Long family's ancestral shrine.

The shrine consisted of stone tablets bearing the names of deceased Longs. An eleven-headed Guanyin sculpture in grey sandstone appeared to shiver behind sheets of smoke rising from burning incense. A scroll depicting the coiling dragon of the Long family hung high on the wall above the shrine.

It was not this that kept Neji's rapt concentration but rather the scene unfolding between his place at the doorway and the shrine. On elevated bedding, chest rising high and falling low with the effort it took simply to breathe, was Gai. Lee stood close to his knee, watching him in case there was a call for his help. From behind Gai's bed, Tenten dabbed at Gai's glistening brow with a damp, chilled cloth.

The man had been made as comfortable as possible. Tsunade had done what healing she could – regrettably little – and had left afterward with Jiraiya. It had been explained that they needed to return to the capital, Cha'an, so as not to provoke royal suspicion or risk questions being asked.

Tenten's face to Neji was a study of fortitude. No, he corrected himself, it wasn't strength so much as limited reserves of only temporary solidity, all brought to her eyes, which had yet to produce a single tear.

Presently, as though on cue, Gai's eyes fluttered open. His fingers quivered, then rose to brush across Lee's exposed wrist. The young man reacted as though he had been burned but had no fear of further pain because he moved closer.

"Gai-shi fu," Lee breathed, kneeling at his side. "You are…"

"Dying," Gai supplied when it seemed that Lee could not form the word. "Yes." His tones were soft, as though lined with velvet which muffled the sound. Somehow, though, his voice held the same power for which Neji had always remembered it. "Kabuto achieved a magnificent strike."

"I shall kill him!" Lee cried suddenly, shooting to his feet. "I shall."

Gai's response to this vow was mellow at best. His expression, tired in its look, remained the same, but a new light entered his eyes. Neji saw it for what it was: endless pride. Perhaps Lee did not see it in that moment, but people tend to recognize that which they have rarely received more easily than those who have been a regular recipient. "You may," Lee's teacher allowed, "but if you do not, know that I can only be pleased by you, Lee."

Lee's shoulders trembled, but from his vantage point Neji could not see if he were actually crying. Lee stepped back then, and Gai held his unsteady hand out to the side. "Tenten…my Tenten…"

At once, Tenten went to him, hurriedly catching his outstretched hand between both of hers as if she anticipated the sudden collapse of his arm. Her hair shimmered, her lips shone in the candlelight, but what reflected most brightly was the combination of grief, fear, and denial that had managed to breach the mask she had kept over her face. It was as though a secret dam had caved in. Neji had never expected such raw emotions to be found inside of her gaze.

Gai, however, seemed to know every ring of color in the young woman's eyes, and the smile he now gave her showed that nothing before her had ever made him happier. "Tenten," he repeated. "Do you already mourn my passing? You see me as though I were gone."

"Never gone," Tenten replied, but there was weakness where stalwartness normally occupied. "Only hurt. Gai…." Words fled from her, and she went to her knees as Lee had done, bending her head so that her cheek pressed to the back of Gai's hand.

"You did that when you were a child," her guardian observed, "and yet you've not been a child for years. I apologize for that." He took a deep breath and was punished for it by a shuddering series of coughs. Neji saw every muscle in Tenten's body tense. "There was a time, I knew, for this night. I had selfishly hoped to see you wed."

"I was not strong enough," Tenten began, straightening to meet his eyes as her voice took on a feverish pitch. "I could not drink that wine – I felt it was a poison that would not kill my body, only my gladness. It was _my _selfishness that brought you to this!"

"Be careful of what you so quickly judge to be wrong. It has taken suffering, not just to myself, for me to see now that Sasuke had other reasons for wanting you as his wife. Remember Itachi." Tenten's sudden surprise was forgotten when Gai set his palm on the crown of her head, feeling the curtain of tangled hair but no doubt recalling how beautiful she had been only hours ago. "I have lived half a century, Tenten. Even Hyuuga Neji's father was not gifted with such years."

Neji inwardly flinched at the unexpected mention of Hizashi's death. He knew that Gai meant no offense, however, and strongly doubted that the invalidated man was even aware of anyone else in the room besides Tenten.

"Surely it is bearable that I go now?"

Tenten's lips pressed together into a thin, white line. "Must I watch two fathers die before my eyes, Gai?"

The older man only continued to smile. And Neji wondered if that was who Gai had truly been to Tenten; the one to remind her that smiling was not an impossible thing to do in this life. "Your father, as I've told you, was a very great man, my Tenten. There are few who can live with the honor that he did, but you are among them. His true dying wish – and now, my own – was not only that this clan remains together in the storm of hardship which you now stand in the eye of."

"Your…your wish?"

"You must bear children. If there was anything Long Tao Huang desired most, it was that the Long family continue – that you continue with it." Gai was stroking her hair now, and with each brush of his hand Tenten's barriers seem to thin a bit more, like water evaporating into a cloud. "Know the joy your father felt the day you were born. Know the laugh your mother gave in the moments before she left you with him. Know the fulfillment I have had in watching you become the vision of wonder that you are."

"I…"

"You must say it."

"I will…have children."

Neji saw Tenten's head shake, but Gai only nodded, content, just before flicking his eyes to him. "Hyuuga Neji…will you not protect her when I am gone? She has battles ahead." So it seemed Gai was aware of him after all.

Neji could not be sure, but he thought he saw a familiar glint of mischief twinkling from deep within Gai's half-closed eyes. "I…" He saw Tenten kneeling at Gai's side, saw the way she appeared on the verge of breaking in half. "I will," the Hyuuga heard himself say. "I shall protect her for you." When Tenten turned her head to look at him, he purposefully avoided her.

"Then I've no need to remain any longer."

Tenten whipped back around, pressing her fingers to the side of his face as though her touch would erase those words. "Gai!"

Love made Gai's dark eyes glimmer wetly, contrasting with the clinging despair she was radiating. "My lady…Long Tai Na."

And then those eyes closed…not to open again.

The next full minute in that room was spent in the most spectacular of silences, where dripping wax and flickering light were the only movement whatever. Tenten was the first to break the spell that shock had cast, slumping to the floor and beating the wood once with the side of her fist. Lee moved toward her, but she shook her head violently, stopping him.

"Please just…." Her voice cracked. "Just give me some time alone with him. Won't you?"

Lee deflated with the rejection, but he smiled as his teacher had done and answered with difficulty: "Of course, Tenten. Neji?"

Neji felt her eyes go to him, as though she had forgotten his presence until his name was brought up. He did not dare look at her for utter lack of wanting to see what he would find. Obediently, he began to follow Lee out. Passing the double doors that would seal her off from the rest of the clan, Neji was rooted to the spot when he heard a sound, foreign and unexpected – a sob.

He pivoted and almost broke the skin of his palms with the push of his short fingernails into the flesh. Tenten's hair had fallen around her face in shining waves of brown, but he could see the hand she had pressed to her mouth in a vain attempt to keep the sorrow at bay. She had no lack of tears now. The physical form of her grief ran down her cheeks and over her fingers in rivulets, spotting the floor.

Above her, Gai rested, peaceful and still warm. Neji was simultaneously filled with an unparalleled respect for the now late warrior. He had been, Neji reflected, a man of both talent and heart…something rarely found in most combatants.

He felt it again, that inexplicable longing to reach out to her, to hold her until her the tremors subsided and her eyes were dry. Not only did he know that he could never do such a thing, but it also was true that Tenten was not approachable at the moment. If she turned those grief-stricken eyes on him, he expected it would be enough to fell him right there.

Uselessness again encroached upon him. But this time it seemed he was not alone in the feeling. Nearby, Lee was despondent, staring at the bare walls and the night outside of the evenly-spaced windows. Neji could not help but feel as though he was misplaced, as though his admiration for Gai was ill-timed…there had to be pain and tears first, honor came later. It was much the same in Japan.

He realized that all he would be able to do was wait until the healing process ended. Some would take longer than others, but the sorrow would pass, and if he was lucky he would have a purpose in being here again. There was still the matter of the Uchiha to consider.

"_Remember Itachi."_

Neji did not know the significance of that warning. Glancing one more time at Tenten, he did reach out – but only far enough to grasp the handles of the doors and pull them shut, leaving her alone with the father Tenten had known and loved.

_To Be Continued…_


	12. Conversations

**Author's Notes: **_I just wanted to thank you all for being such a polite, sincere group of readers. I'm glad you are enjoying Cutting Water enough to give such a good response. Please keep reading, and I hope to live up to expectation._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Twelve

By Nessie

Sasuke healed, but slowly enough that it drove him to ill temper. He had intended to recover and show Long Tenten proper retaliation, but his wound continued to plague his health. Kabuto's incompetence began to manifest as the days passed; not only had his marriage plan failed, but the man knew precious little about healing, forced to continuously turn to the woman named Sakura for knowledge.

Sakura herself had taken on a lesser-of-two-evils mentality, and that was something Sasuke could understand. Survival was an instinct, and Kabuto's hostility had pushed her into a delicate position that the Uchiha had not been well enough to contemplate much. For her, it was help or die. Now that his condition was no longer life-threatening, he was beginning to find a great deal of dissatisfaction from the current state of affairs.

Even so, Sasuke could not deny that Kabuto held a considerable amount of loyalty for him, although he suspected it was out of a wish to be part of a group rather than try to get by on his own. Kabuto served well, as Sasuke was still mostly bed-ridden and unable to move on his own. Nights brought the most intense pain, and he tended to strain the stitches in his chest when he moved in his sleep.

The only compensation was being tended to by Sakura, who was still a distraction, but at least she provided him the opportunity to think of something besides revenge, honor, and humiliation. She did not speak to him much, and the silence was often disquieting but bearable.

"I have been here for five days," she murmured one afternoon when she was ordered into the tent to change his bandages.

"Four," Sasuke corrected, his voice rough with the concentration it took to ignore the soft hands that held him still while she worked. Her touch, like her words, was impersonal and light. He did not feel any particularly strong reaction to the feel of her skin against his, but her eyes were the same as they had been when he had first seen them – they ignited something within him.

"I suppose it has seemed longer." She secured the wrapping around his middle and added in a voice so low he almost did not hear her: "Four days more without Neji."

The comment made him remember his desire to face the Hyuuga, to test his own strength against the other man's. The notion felt pitiful at present, while he lay nearly motionless on the floor of a tent in the middle of the Chinese wilderness.

"Looking at you makes me resentful," he said suddenly. He had not intended to say it; indeed, he had not even realized he felt that way, but the words were out of Sasuke's mouth and hung in the air like mist between them.

Sakura sat beside him, her eyes wide but unsurprised. She had probably not been expecting him to say anything to her. After a moment, the set of her shoulders relaxed and she began to gather up the used bandages. "I feel the same when I look at myself."

Such an admission made Sasuke angle his head to look at her. His vantage point showed him the line of her neck leading to the underside of her chin, where strands of petal-like hair clung in the heat of the warm day. Her eyes were not trained on him, and that alone gave him the strength to reply. "Since you arrived, you mean."

"No. Since before Neji ever left Japan. I have felt purposeless," she said, gazing off at the slit in the tent's doorway where the sky could be seen. Her face tightened, as though the blue of it hurt her eyes. "Most Japanese women do. When we were children, I saw Neji always working; training and serving his family in the hopes of reaching higher lofts. And I could only do what was expected of me…learn my place, learn to heal. Even being taught to read and write gave me no sense of usefulness."

"Your place is better than most," Sasuke commented, bitterness leaking through in his tone. Sakura's head lowered a fraction in acknowledgement.

"There is truth in that. And yet…" Blinking rapidly, she went to her feet and stepped forward as though to leave. She did not move beyond three steps. "Yet I watched Neji sail for this land, and I felt no better than if I were clan-less and alone."

"You do not know what that means." The bitterness was a spring now, flowing through the tent from the anger in his gaze. "If you must travel to be with someone, then you cannot feel true loneliness."

Her eyes went to his then, catching him off-guard. The cool green of them felt like a salve, and the mist dissipated, the spring was dammed. "I'm sorry," she whispered. It was not fear that prompted her apology, and Sasuke's stomach coiled tightly in response. "Your suffering…I don't know what it is…but it is great."

He dug his fingers into the mattress beneath him, unable to handle the tension she brought to him was only her soft look. Sasuke had never expected them to share even this much, and now he wished they had not spoken. "How do you know?"

"You fight hard. You sacrifice. If you didn't, you would not be hurt, and you would have no need for me."

The honesty that came through her was familiar and strange at the same time. He had known so little sincerity in his life and Sasuke wondered where he had met with it before…and realized after considering it that the only times had ever been when he had combated Long Tenten.

Sasuke looked away to have a reprieve from her. "A face like yours…" He meant to say that she made him uncomfortable or something that would discourage her looking at him. "It makes me think of things worth fighting for." Instead, it was he who took a turn to be honest, but he could not figure out why. "And…there seems to be purpose for you in that."

He heard her take a startled breath, and when the strength to look at her again returned, she had gone. And it was true; the sky was so blue it hurt to see it.

* * *

Sasuke prevented himself from thinking of her by sleeping, coaxing his body to take the rest he had had so little of in the months since rekindling the battle with the Long clan. Sheer exhaustion held him still but when he awoke hours later he knew that he would be restless that and most likely damage Sakura's careful stitching.

She returned to him with Kabuto that night to check for fever and reported that his body temperature was once more normal and would allow him to heal at a faster pace as long as he did not overdo movement and remained patient. Sasuke was not sure whether he was pleased or displeased by the information.

"I should stay in here and keep watch overnight," said Kabuto. "It would be bad for you if you tore out your stitches, Sasuke-sama."

"I will do it." Sakura said the words so calmly and with a tone that suggested the idea was obvious. She added without intent to provoke, "You would not know what to do if he did tear them out."

Kabuto was provoked at any rate. "If I can keep him alive—"

"Leave," Sasuke growled to Kabuto. "I am sick of your efforts that only prove your ineptitude. Find your worth in things you can actually do, Kabuto."

Sasuke's right-hand man made a fist but was obedient, and with a swift turn that openly revealed his anger, he swept out of the tent. His stomping could be heard until he was well away. Sakura remained, lowering herself to the ground where she learned against the pole that supported the tent.

"Why do you keep him here if he does not satisfy you?" Sasuke was taken unaware once more by her initiative to talk.

The genuine curiosity he heard in her voice urged response. "Because I cannot afford to decrease my numbers in any way. I am already at a disadvantage with the clan of Long. And Kabuto is a skilled fighter; dismissing him would practically be suicide."

"Some would rather die than be accompanied by those they hate."

"Then they are fools who did not learn to endure."

Sakura watched him, the lantern in the tent lighting up the left side of her face with a pale illumination that made her hair stand out against the gentle curve of her cheek. "Why do you endure, Uchiha-san?"

He snorted, not at her question but at her decision to address him so formally. "Do not call me that. I've no need for your false respect."

"Then…"

"'Sasuke' is simple enough for you, I would imagine."

Her gaze lowered to her feet, pushed tensely together in front of her as she hugged her knees to her chest. "Do you call fighting endurance…Sasuke?" Her tentative try-out of his name amused him, but briefly.

His jaw tightened. "I endure pain. I endure inconvenience. I suppose you thought too that I enjoy it." When she did not say anything, he went on. "I don't. I have a meaning in it."

"You have no reason to trust me," she began.

"My entire clan was murdered by my older brother." He heard her inhale sharply. They seemed to be repeatedly surprising each other this evening. "He spared me – not out of mercy, but out of interest. He maintained that I should grow to claim the land of the Long clan, as my father failed to do, should I wish to exact revenge upon him.

He was correct. I do want revenge. Itachi knew that well enough, and I fight the Longs for the purpose of defeating him. I haven't any idea if peace will come to me with his death, but I know that nothing else will bring me satisfaction in life if I cannot _kill_ him the way he killed—"

Sasuke stopped himself short, breathing hard with the rage that had risen to the surface while telling Sakura of Itachi. "Everyone," he concluded lowly, the word brushing past his lips, energy spent.

Sakura stared, but he thought that her expression did not hold judgment – not for him, anyway. "Your brother," she replied after several long minutes of silent consideration. "Itachi…you are sure he will come to you? If you take the land?"

"You are not the first to ask me that." Sasuke closed his eyes. "He left me alive for sport. I feel certain he will return. If he is dead, it will be cruel that I was not the one to kill him. I want to him to see that I achieved what our father could not, what he did not, and I want him to die in this country that he cursed himself."

She breathed raggedly as though physically affected by his story. "You speak to me very quickly, after only four days."

"It seems I do have reason to trust you."

Sakura kept quiet, moving only to blow out the lantern when he seemed tired enough to sleep. Exhaustion encroached, brought on by the unexpected passion it had taken to tell her of his past and of his desires. Sasuke was mostly astonished with himself for saying things to her which he had never said to anyone. It was not until he was almost asleep that he heard her voice, soft and distant in the darkness of his mind.

"Perhaps you are one to be understood…and should have my true respect."

Sasuke did not know if these words were real, or if she was the one to utter them.

_To Be Continued…_


	13. To Cut Water

**Author's Notes: **_It's the chapter that tells you what the title means! Yay! (Those who have read "Daring To Bleed" understand this joke.) I hope everyone's still enjoying this story._

_Warning: Some innuendo, nothing graphic. Tenten's not feeling quite right and, for that matter, neither is Neji._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Thirteen

By Nessie

She wasn't moving. On her bed, Tenten was still, occasional blinking the only indication that she was even alive. Neji's jaw was tight as he lurked in the doorway, watching her. He was not distracted by the decoration of her chamber, although it was easily seen that she was favored by the clan. All of the adornment that the rest of the compound lacked could be found here.

Old family heirlooms of jade and ruby glittered in the late afternoon sun creeping in through her mostly-shaded windows. Rich draperies from the height of the Long family's time hung around her bed. And throughout the room were various weapons and other deadly instruments. But it was Tenten, and not these fineries, that kept Neji's attention.

She lay on her stomach, one arm hidden beneath the pillow under her head, the other stretched out so that her fingertips hung off the end of the mattress. Her head was turned in the direction of those fingers. Though covered by brightly-dyed sheets, Neji could see that one of her legs was straight while the other was brought up slightly. Her fingers, her knee, the end of her nose all faced the same way, east, as though she kept waiting for the perfect sunrise though three had come and gone since Gai's death.

"They tell me you haven't eaten," Neji said, his voice slicing the silence like the breeze slices through the wheat field, making ripples. "Or spoken," he added softly when no reply was forthcoming. "Lee is worried for you."

Tenten gave no sign that she heard him, her dark eyes staring ceaselessly at her limp hand.

His brow furrowed, Neji took a step inside the room. He was reminded suddenly of the time she had intruded on him and tested him with a poisoned needle. And while she held no weapon now, it still seemed as though her lack of animation tormented him. He saw the way her hair, unwashed, splayed over her pale pillow in waves and curls. She appeared defenseless.

_He could kill you like this,_ Neji thought, _Uchiha Sasuke could kill you now._

"Gai was buried to the right of the Long family's section of the burial ground," Neji reported, looking for a reaction. She finally responded, but it was only a brief flexing of her fingers. She was like a phantom, real only in sight. He had the odd notion that if he were to reach out to touch her, he would feel nothing.

The thought was overwhelming even though he knew it to be absurd. As though to prove his self wrong, Neji went forward to the edge of her bed. Tenten still did not move a fraction of a muscle, but he could smell the scent of her skin and knew at least that she was real. He heard the slow, even breathing from her parted lips. Though he stood in her line of vision, Tenten did not seem to see him.

Foregoing gentleness, because it was having no effect on her, Neji grasped the shoulder nearer to him and shook forcefully. "Tenten."

Her eyes widened and turned to him, as if her name from his lips was an awakening spell. "Neji," she rasped, her voice sounding hollow even to his ears.

"I'm here." He had been no further than ten feet from her room since the end of Gai's funeral, but he did not tell her that. He had slept in the corridor of the main house for the past two nights and had taken his meals outside her door. It had not been until Lee's suggestion that he talk to her that Neji dared go inside.

"Did Ino place the flowers?"

It took him a minute to recall that Ino was the blond girl and that her family maintained the clan's cemetery. It took him another few seconds to remember that he had seen her sadly decorate Gai's grave with blossoms at the funeral. He affirmed this to the softly-speaking woman, and at last the shadow of a smile appeared on Tenten's face.

"I hope they were lotuses," murmured the clan leader. "He really loved lotuses."

"I don't know." Neji honestly wished he did, however. "Why don't you come with me to see?" It would be good for her family to see her about the compound.

She took him off guard by sitting up. He was relieved to see that she was modestly covered in a sleeping robe but his pulse galloped with the sudden proximity. Her hair fell free down her back, and the slope of her neck appeared somehow delicate…_she _appeared delicate at the moment.

"He loved me, too," she told him but Neji had the feeling that she did not speak to him. "And I…I felt safe only with him. Gai was my father."

"He was a good man," he agreed.

Her gaze went to his, and she grabbed his wrist without warning. Neji fought not to move in his surprise, lest he hurt her. Unpredictably, she rose on her knees until her face was higher than his. He held perfectly still, as though she were a creature that would bolt the second he budged. Perhaps this comparison was mistaken, because Tenten raised the hand not holding his wrist and pressed it to the side of his neck.

"A good man. That's what he said of you. He thought I didn't know he was trying to sway me to favor you, but I did know." She closed her eyes for a moment, and Neji knew that she was trying to remember her deceased mentor, every moment they had shared together. When she opened them again, there was a glassy sheen, and he realized Tenten was not herself.

Her mournful outlook belied her physical strength, but she gave a quick tug, and Neji fell off balance toward her. Both of his hands slammed into the mattress on either side of her body so that he would not crush her, but her goal was met when his lips brushed across hers. Her hand came up and pulled his head closer to her, deepening the kiss.

Neji was on fire in moments. So distracted, his foggy senses barely registered it when Tenten pulled him fully over her. He knew only soft flesh, the feeling of arms welcoming him, her body beneath him and—

"Please," Tenten breathed against his mouth, angling her head back and taking her hands away. She began to pull at the knot in her robe.

He didn't comprehend what she was doing until the silk he felt on her shoulder gave way to smooth skin. He resurfaced from his haze, and the sensation was akin to how he had felt when he had been submerged and come up again when his ship had sunk just before his arrival in China.

This time when Neji grasped her shoulders, it was to hold her in place. "Stop," he panted, pushing her away from him as gently as possible. She fought him, trying to get free, and he tightened his grip. "_Tenten_!"

She froze on his shout, her brown eyes huge as she stared up at him. There was no unfocused sheen now, only a layer of confusion that swiftly changed to humiliation. "Neji," she murmured. Her eyes darted about to various points around her before returning to his. "Neji, I…I don't—"

"You're in shock," he interposed calmly, taking his weight off of her and standing up from the bed. She did not move except to breathe. He granted her with a sideways glance. "You've been unwell. It's understandable."

Neji soon saw that even while embarrassed Tenten still had the capacity for indignation. "Don't!" she said, the command he had once admired returning to her demeanor, if only for a moment. "Don't pity me, Neji! I can't…I can't go on if you pity me." Her tone lowered until it had become a whisper.

He let several moments of silence pass by, until her breathing regulated and his own heart regained its normal pace. "What can I do for you?" he finally asked her.

"I think it would be best if you go now." Her voice was short and clipped, but there was a hint of vulnerability beneath. "Thank you…for your attention."

He decided that prolonging the intensity between them by questioning her would only bring more tension to wade through. Neji, therefore, did as she said. Bowing slightly, he walked back to the entrance and quietly shut the door behind him.

"Neji."

If he was a lesser man, he would have jumped a foot into the air. Because he was not a lesser man, his reaction to being snuck up on was only a tightening of his fingers around the door handle. He pivoted to see Lee watching him.

Over the last few days, he had seen Lee deal with his grief in a way befitting to Gai's pupil. The other man had remained calm, purposeful as he organized Gai's funeral arrangements and otherwise led the Long clan in Tenten's stead. Neji had a newfound respect for Lee and had satisfaction in knowing that Lee held the same for him.

"I wish to speak to you of Tenten. After I do so, perhaps her behavior will become more explicable to you." Lee turned away and made a gesture for Neji to follow him. The Hyuuga did so, though the ghostly quiet of the Long main house's many halls was suffocating.

Lee took him to the western side of the house, close to the room where Gai had passed away, but the two men stepped outside and stood among the growing things. The air was free-flowing and the day was warm. Neji was grateful for Lee's consideration; he felt able to breathe now. It was only after five minutes of listening – to the wind, the bending of the grass, the faint voices of clan members – that Lee turned to Neji and spoke, his eyes solemn.

"Neji, my loyalty has been to Tenten for eight years. As far as I am concerned, she is the master of my very life. I serve her gladly. I imagine if I did not have her to pledge myself to, I would be as lost as I was on the day I pulled her from the river. She is, and will always be, my lady."

Neji kept quiet, comprehending that he had no words to accompany Lee's. In matters of the Long family, he was mute.

"Gai-shi fu knew these things of me, and I believe that when he wished to say things to someone other than Tenten, he chose me as an outside ear." Lee smiled now, though the expression was quiet and not at all as extreme as his moods most often were. "For instance…not long after I was initiated into the clan of Long, Gai regaled me with the story of Tenten's birth.

"Her true name, Tai Na, means _too beautiful_. Did you know that, in your study of our language? Gai-shi fu was outside of her mother's room at the hour she was born. He was one of the first people informed of Takanashi Amaya's death, second only to Tao Huang himself."

Neji remembered Gai telling him of Tenten's mother. _"Amaya died as Tenten first started to live."_

"Gai-shi fu once told me that Tao Huang grieved minimally for his wife after he held his daughter for the first time. Tao Huang named her Tai Na because he believed that two women of such beauty could not exist on earth at the same time, and so Amaya was sacrificed for the sake of Tenten."

Neji looked at Lee now, but Lee's gaze had long since wandered away from him. Lee was gazing dazedly at the outer western wall, at the treetops which could barely be seen over it.

"She refused to see anyone, you know. Even me. But she made no protest when you entered her chamber." There was no envy in Lee's voice, only wonderment. "What you must understand, Neji, is that Tenten is not a woman accustomed to happiness. Her entire life is, you could say, a study in misery. To be perfectly honest, I think she would not have taken Gai-shi fu's death so badly if…"

Annoyed by his pause, Neji prompted him in a rough voice. "If?"

"If she had not known you beforehand."

Neji's moonlike eyes narrowed. His silence expressed his doubt and confusion. Lee appeared to have expected so much.

"The two of you are as Gai-shi fu said: similar. In fact, you are more alike than any two people I have ever known.

"Most people have a breaking point. A wall is breached or a boundary is shaken, and wills crumble to pieces like rotted wood. You, Hyuuga Neji, and my lady Long Tenten – neither of you are capable of being halted so easily. You, who have since your births been acquaintances of fighting and death…you who have repeatedly met with opposition for the duration of your lives…you who have mastered every obstacle to be set in your path.

"You both are like water. Your wills, too, are like water. And your opposition is very much like the swords you traded in the place where both your fathers and Gai-shi fu rests."

Lee now met Neji's eyes, and it was in this critical moment that Neji finally understood everything; why his father Hiashi had given up his life to protect this family, why Long Tao Huang and Gai devoted themselves to the maintaining of this land,

"Enemies may take up their swords and try to cut water. The water still flows. And you carry on."

And with that, Neji discovered something. He felt precisely the same way those valorous had. He had sworn to protect Tenten and all that she stood for. And now…

Now, he wanted to.

"Do not let Tenten discourage you," Lee said, snapping Neji from his reverie back to reality. "She will forever be a stubborn woman. That is her way – as, I think, it is yours. But she has found happiness in knowing you. Before you arrived, she was a woman focused on nothing but victory in a fight of only so much meaning. Since you came, I have watched her transform in the way a spring blossom transforms. She is fuller, stronger, and though she wilts for a moment, it is only a matter of time before she rises to her final bloom."

"What has inspired you to tell me all of this?" Neji asked him at last.

Lee smiled once more; and this was a smile closer to the one Neji had first seen him give. "I understand the way you feel for her. I have seen, Hyuuga Neji, that you honestly love Tenten."

Neji stilled. The words, the actual voicing of his feelings by another was like a charm intended to stop his mind. Yet his mind worked at full force, and he had a sense of experiencing over again every second that he had spent with Tenten in the time since he had left Japan.

Shockingly enough, Neji found that he was unable to deny any of Lee's claims.

"Do not be shamed by it. Gai-shi fu would have said that to love is more glorious than any accomplishments one might make upon the battlefield. And while I will refrain from overstepping my bounds in matters of your own mind…" Lee's smile was infused with a small bit of mischief. "I will say with the certainty of longtime friendship that it is very possible for Tenten to love you in return."

Neji could only stare at Lee, stunned.

"And," Lee added as he turned and began to walk back into the main house, "is that not something better than battle to find in this wonderful land of China?"

Alone now, Neji concentrated on physical things – his hair being tossed by the wind, the weight of the sword at his hip, the feeling of Tenten's lips still haunting his own…

Considering love was not something he could afford to do now.

_To Be Continued…_


	14. Not Enough

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Fourteen

By Nessie

The Uchiha grounds were no more than a campsite serving as a home. Sakura knew this and was starting to be accustomed with the sound of it in the morning, when the dew was drying and the air was pleasantly brisk. Birds sang in the trees and Sasuke's band of assorted fighters came out to start breakfast fires and exercise. She had kept her distance as much as possible, especially from Kabuto, whose hostility was growing more and more blatant.

The spirit of China was not like the one in Japan. Sakura wondered if it was only the camp of the Uchiha clan that made her feel this way, yet she could not help believing that everything here was far more expressive – the trees seemed greener, the sky bluer. The very wind touched her cheeks as though the air could hold her in an intimate embrace.

Nature was healing. She had thought so before, but the belief was especially firm now. Her will, once bruised by her misfortune of being kept prisoner, had developed into something stronger. Sakura felt less tender now, as though she could stand anything that came to harm her.

And it was not only her. Sasuke had made astonishing progress in the last few days. She no longer had to change his bandages several times a day, and she was planning on removing his stitches as early as tomorrow afternoon. The only time she entered his tent now was to apply herbal balm to his chest wound in order to keep it from infecting. And, of course, she slept there on Sasuke's orders. She had not been given a tent of her own, and it was not feasible for her to stay outside at night in the depths of the wilderness. She had no choice but to accept the situation and be thankful that this group was not barbaric enough to throw her to the land's mercy.

Not only that…but her desire to help that Uchiha clan's injured leader had become perplexing even to her. There was no true reason she should want to be of any use to him – it had at first been forced upon her, but it was now voluntary. She showed up at Sasuke's tent on time without Kabuto's disgruntled command. She listened attentively when Sasuke spoke to her, and he had begun to speak more and more; not of Itachi. That conversation had gone, not in passing, but inside, as though Sakura had absorbed part of the feelings which Sasuke alone had held for so long.

She confused herself with her own emotions. It was an unfamiliar notion.

She sat drinking water from a jug Kabuto had begrudgingly provided her, staring into a smile fire that she had started herself. Sakura was not a hunter, and she dared not ask anyone else to share with her, but she often wandered the edge of the grounds and found large amounts of roots she knew form her studies to be edible. She was often given food on, again, Sasuke's orders but there were times she yearned to provide for herself. It was a liberating feeling, something she had never needed to do at home in Japan. She cooked the roots she found in a way that made them not only easier to eat but taste good as well.

Sakura heard a twig snap behind her and whirled around. Despite the fact that no harm had yet come to her since being on the Uchiha grounds, her sense for caution had not waned.

A tall woman of lithe build and blond hair looked down at her. The woman's posture was contemplative, her arms crossed in front of her chest, her head cocked to one side as though considering Sakura. "You're her?" she asked, without waiting for Sakura to say anything. "The one tending to Sasuke-sama?"

Sakura did not know what to do. She had seen this woman around the camp but had not encountered her. She knew that she was the only woman besides herself on the Uchiha clan's grounds. "Yes," she answered after a nervous moment. "I'm—"

"Haruno Sakura." Her teal eyes glinted in the early morning light. "The men that found you in the forest are my brothers. They told me of you."

Sakura recalled the man in black with the strangely-marked face, and the other one with eyes similar to his sister's. His countenance – quiet but intelligent – had then prompted Sakura to speak of Neji. And they had brought her here, where she now recalled first seeing this woman, speaking to her two brothers with warnings of Sasuke's foul mood. "I remember," she replied.

"Don't be to tense," the blond woman commanded, and Sakura's shoulders at once eased. "I'm no one to be tense around, though most will tell you otherwise. My name is Temari, and I wanted to ask what Sasuke-sama's condition is."

"He's well," Sakura supplied readily. "His healing was slow at first but has now gone quite swiftly. He could walk by the next moon."

Temari did not respond to this. Her expression did not change but for the blinking of her eyes, and Sakura felt as though she was being evaluated somehow. "You have studied? You can read and write?" Temari asked finally.

She nodded slowly, as though the news was shameful to her. "I was taught in Japan."

"You are lucky. And I am not surprised. It is a special woman who could catch the attention of Sasuke-sama so fully."

"I…" Clutching the water jug tighter, Sakura swallowed. "I do not understand you."

Temari smiled then, and stepped over the log on which Sakura sat to lower herself onto it beside her. "It will not surprise you, I should think, that Uchiha Sasuke has taken me as a lover. He is a man of power, and I am the only female warrior in this 'clan' of his. I desired what we shared as much as he – and as little."

Embarrassed by the revelation, Sakura kept silent, not noticing that the roots she had gathered were being incinerated in the fire, forgotten.

"You see, Sakura, Sasuke and I were a mockery of what a man and a woman can be." Her tone was not bitter, though it once had been. "There was only a mindset of flesh, nothing of mind, and though I was affected when he turned me away, it is true that I now think nothing of the loss of him. I never had him to begin with, just as he never had me."

Though she stared into the bright flames, Sakura saw only the form of Sasuke lying hurt in bed, the only way she had seen him for over a week now.

"If a man should have a woman, then he should want to know her – all of her, I suspect. Perhaps I am wrong in this, for I've had only my brothers for most of my life. Do you think I am wrong?" Temari watched her, her expression different now. She seemed genuinely interested in Sakura's opinion. Sakura wondered if Temari had perhaps not desired a female companion among all of these men she lived with.

"I think you're right," answered Sakura lowly. "How can two people be expected to be at peace with each other if they do not interest one another beyond the physical?"

"Then you understand…Sasuke had no interest in me, and I had none for him. It was what we both wanted, at least for a time. Even so…" Temari's mouth turned up at one side. It was not a smile but the suggestion of one. "I do not believe Sasuke-sama lacks feelings for others. I sensed within him the ability to care for those who would earn it. He simply did not care for me."

The image of Sasuke in Sakura's mind morphed, turning into someone she had practically forgotten in the last few days. Neji, at the prow of a ship, leaving Japan. Temari's words resonated through her like the peel of a gong.

"I felt," began Sakura, pausing to think. "I felt something similar, once, with another man."

"Hyuuga Neji?"

She only lowered her head. It was a daunting thought. If she had felt such and had known of it, then what had compelled her to come all of this way? Childhood memories? Desperation to know if Neji lived or was in death?

The two women sat in silence for a moment, the heat from the fire washing over them. It was Temari who broke the wordlessness but standing and turning to her. "Do you wish for company tonight? I have noticed you eating in solitude since you arrived. Must you tend to Sasuke-sama this evening?"

Surprised, Sakura shook her head. "Not tonight."

"Then join me and my brothers, will you? We hunt well. You won't have to make do with your leaves and whatever it is that fool Kabuto gives you." Temari grinned now. "And you will have tea. Water only suffices for so long, doesn't it?"

The idea of tea had Sakura smiling in return to Temari's infectious grin. "That's true."

"So you will come?"

She went to her feet. "I will come." When they parted, Temari presumably to inform her brothers of their dinner guest and Sakura to see to Sasuke, it was happily. Sakura had nearly forgotten how it felt to be pleased. And she wondered, as she gathered her medical supplies, if she had perhaps made a friend in this place where friendship had seemed so scarce.

* * *

Nighttime settled over the Uchiha camp with its usual dispassion, but one corner of the camp – where Kankurou, Gaara, and Temari lived – boasted a state of cheerfulness that had, for the last week, taken residence in Sasuke's tent.

He wasn't sleeping, as he probably should have been. He was not even lying down but instead sat up on his mattress, hands limp on his knees. Sakura had come, proceeded with her usual tasks, and then left with the explanation that she had been invited to a meal with Temari and her siblings.

Sasuke should not have been surprised. Sakura was a new, lightening presence in the camp. He should have suspected that others would catch on to the quality of her, the newness she brought wherever she went. But he had not suspected it would happen quickly, and certainly not with Temari.

He had sent Kabuto away so he could be alone, so he could think.

Overall, he had not suspected to feel so disquieted by her absence. She was not his in any way, except for his prisoner, and it didn't matter to him where she was as long as it was not outside the camp. He could not expect her, a woman as seemingly untouchable as the woman, to stay in his tent by choice, simply because he had an unvoiced wish for it.

And when had that wish developed?

Sasuke did not know. He remembered her care, the touches that had been gentle from the beginning, the tenderness she used to slowly make him well. He could almost constantly see her smiles, which had come more and more frequently as the days passed.

There was danger here. Sasuke understood this as he understood that he was powerless to do anything about it. His days had become made of her on the day he had spoken to her of his goals concerning the Long clan. After that, his nights had become made of her as well. On some nights, the inside of the tent was brushed by a breeze, and the scent of her was carried over to him as he slept. He dreamed of Sakura now, and each false vision only made the real sight of her that much entrapping.

He forgot all the troubles he had ever known when he was looking at her.

Sasuke watched the stars glimmer in the sky through the slit in his tent. It had been the only view of the outside world he'd had for days. He heard steps outside the tent, and something inside him rose in anticipation of Sakura's return.

A figure, tall and dark, blocked the stars. The tent's entrance was parted further, and the figure stepped in. Sasuke's senses immediately went on alert – this was not Sakura. It was not even a woman.

"Sasuke…so tired?"

Red filled his head. There was no light to give the silhouetted form detail, but the voice coming from it was a sound that represented every ounce of hatred Sasuke had ever felt. Time had made it different from the voice of his memory, but there was enough familiarity to bring raging hostility to the fore until it thickly clouded the entire tent.

"They say weddings are exhausting, but I have not heard that they make you bleed." The figure entered his tent completely, and Sasuke went to his knees, hoping against hope that he would be able to stand when he needed to.

His own voice, when it came, sounded as though he had to squeeze it out of his throat to get it past the loathing in his chest. "How did you find this place, Itachi?"

"So you do remember me." He sounded amused. "I admit I wondered if you would. I've always known where you are, Sasuke. I hear things." Itachi took another step forward, as Sasuke placed his hands on the mattress in a way that would let him push himself up. "I heard you were marrying the Long's leader – and here I find you suffering from that _woman's _attack." At last, a beam of starlight fell over the older Uchiha's face, and Itachi eyes – the same, Sasuke thought, exactly the same as that night – met his brother's. "You've thrown off my plan, Sasuke."

Sasuke gritted his teeth in both anger and pain. "You would not have had that land even if I had gained it from Long Tenten."

"A woman," Itachi repeated. "I could have anything I want from her."

"_You will kill him with your ignorance!"_

Sakura.

"Not all women," countered Sasuke, "are to be taken lightly."

The two remaining members of the Uchiha clan stared at each other in the dark. Sasuke's frown only intensified as Itachi's mouth turned up in a realizing smile.

"I see." Itachi made a show up looking outside the tent in the direction Sasuke knew Temari's tent to be. "It's that Japanese woman, isn't it? The one with such green eyes." Looking back at Sasuke, his smile widened. "You are wrong, I think. I believe that one could be taken _very_ lightly."

It exploded – the years of pent-up anguish, hate, blame, suffering, all of it, it built and overflowed like a crash and Sasuke was launching himself off the mattress. The agony only fueled his desire to kill the man standing in his personal tent as though he had always owned it and everything inside of it – including Sasuke.

He felt heat sear his knuckles once he had closed in, and Sasuke heard an incredibly satisfying crack as Itachi's head snapped backward with the punch to the jaw. The older man recovered more quickly than the injured Sasuke could, however, and Itachi's hand was soon wrapped around Sasuke's throat.

"Fool," Itachi growled, his smile now replaced by an ugly snarl. "You're weak now. Killing you would be—"

Distant voices outside the tent interrupted him. "Sasuke-sama!" They grew swiftly nearer.

"Don't believe this is enough," threatened Itachi, raising his arm high and bringing his elbow down on the crown of Sasuke's head.

Sasuke felt himself drop to the hard floor of the tent, even felt the wind rush by him when Itachi flew out. Blackness filled his head, reaching his vision, and he saw Kabuto, Kankurou, and Gaara burst into the tent.

He could not stay awake long enough to feel their hands assist him, and Sasuke imagined that they were Sakura's hands instead.

_To Be Continued…_


	15. Wish Untold

**Author's Notes: **_I bet you were all wondering where my notes and disclaimer went in chapter fourteen. To be quite honest…I forgot them. And feel so ashamed! But I'm here to tell you that this is pretty much THE chapter. I hope it was worth waiting for and that you'll all stick with me. _

_As always, feel free to let me know your thoughts and opinions on this story. _

_Warning: An adult situation but absolutely nothing graphic. _

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Fifteen

By Nessie

He had done it. The sword which his father had left in China for him was now that only weapon which Neji felt he had ever owned. It had become an elongation of his arm which he could remove and attach as needed. Sweat glistened on his brow in the last minutes of daylight, and his right arm was on the verge of shaking now that the sword was back in its sheath instead of in his hand. After the training, numbering almost in fifty hours with pauses for nothing but food and sleep, Neji wondered how he had ever doubted that he would be able to wield it.

Perhaps Gai was right, he thought. Perhaps he was destined to be both Neji and Hizashi, and continue the life that Hizashi did not get to have for long.

When he arrived from the foliage-rich training grounds to the main house, he saw that measures had been taken to prepare for his return. A young boy that had recently been assisting Lee informed him that bath water had been heated for him. Once clean, he was given a new change of clothes and provided with tools with which to care for his weapon. He ate a warm meal as the moon rose like a companion, visible from the window of his room.

China was peaceful. There had been several days of nothing but quiet. Were circumstances different, Neji would have relaxed and enjoyed the constant hospitality of his hosts along with his new confidence using Hizashi's sword.

As it was, he remained in the same state he had been in when he had first begun the grueling training session – Tenten's condition was a plague on his mind, her pain harrowing his spirit. In the serenity of the silent Long house, it was more difficult to not acknowledge that his whole reason for taking up Hizashi's sword in the first place was to try and keep himself from thinking of the Long clan's leader.

Every thrust of his blade had been to break free of the memory of her. Each downward stroke had been to escape the feeling of being in her arms, each slash to forget the scent of her, every jab the taste.

But no ringing of steel had overpowered her voice, and no flash of silver hilt had been brighter than the light in her eyes.

There was no point, Neji understood. Torturing himself was useless, because every one of those hours had only succeeded in making him want to see Tenten again, as she had been before Gai's death. And as a Hyuuga, he was not so blind that he did not notice when he had feelings for another person.

Feelings. Neji's eyes widened as he drank the last of his dinner tea.

And what of Sakura? The woman was still at home and, as far as he knew, waiting for his return. A childhood friend who had, Neji admitted, probably considered herself something more than that. What was he to do when his time in China was truly over? He could not stay. Obligation kept him bound to Hyuuga Hiashi just as the clan kept Tenten bound to China.

His wonderings were beginning to form into an actual problem in his mind when Neji was disturbed by several rapid beatings on the door of his room. Calling for the guest to enter, he stood up when Shino and Kiba burst inside.

"Hyuuga," began Shino.

Tone irked, the white-eyed man lifted an eyebrow. "Neji," he reminded them.

"_Neji_," Kiba continued, less tolerating than his introverted friend, "we've something to report. We didn't want to go to Lee because he's exhausted from all the work he's been doing alone lately."

Though it seemed to Neji that Lee would forever be tireless, he supposed that even Gai's apprentice had a caving point. He wasn't certain of what to do, but both Shino and Kiba seemed apprehensive, so to alleviate some of the discomfort clouding the air, he nodded. "What do you want to say?"

"We were scouting. We thought that it had been too long since we've had any trouble with the Uchiha," said Kiba, "and we went out for a look."

"What did you see?"

"Well…we cannot be sure, but—"

"Then what do you _think_ you saw?"

Both of them paused. It was Shino who replied after several terse moments. "Uchiha Itachi. No one has seen him since he left ten years ago," the jacketed man went on when Neji registered bewilderment. "Our parents would be better suited to identify him. However, what we saw looked practically identical to Uchiha Sasuke, though perhaps a few years older."

"And you don't need to know anything about medicine to know that after that wound Tenten gave him, Sasuke won't be up yet." Kiba's voice was inflected with a strange blend of pride and anxiety. "So that only leaves one Uchiha."

"Itachi," Neji murmured. The two other men kept silent, appearing solemn.

Gai's warning had not been forgotten, but neither had it been dwelled on. Now, it seemed the time for dwelling had passed and the Longs could possibly be facing repercussion.

"Very well," Neji told Kiba and Shino. "Take another look at the area you believe to have seen him in. Try to track him only enough to see which direction he went. And then go to Lee and inform him – even if he is tired, he must know."

"And Tenten?" asked Kiba, his eyes fierce with loyalty.

Hesitating, Neji's eyes narrowed. Then— "I will tell her."

In agreement, the two Long men left, hastening to follow orders without question. Neji wondered how it was they so easily accepted the word of one outside of their familial bond but appreciated the effort. He remained seating for only a few more seconds, mentally gathering his thoughts before grabbing his sheathed sword from where he had leaned it against the wall beneath the window.

When he arrived at Tenten's closed – always closed – bedroom door, he made the fast decision that halting long would weaken his resolve. Giving one brisk rap, he entered without waiting for a beckon.

It was not Tenten he found within, lying in carelessness of the world around her, but the blond girl Ino. She was sitting on the floor, folding the brightly colored sheets which had covered Tenten's bed the last time he had stood here. He saw that Ino had replaced them with fresh blankets in more subdued colors, presumably for washing.

Ino looked up when he came in, her eyes bluer in her surprise. "Neji," she said, "why are you—"

"Where has Tenten gone?" he demanded. His quick survey of the room and her absence was unsettling to him, and he knew why.

"Her appetite returned this morning," answered Ino cheerfully, redirecting. "Tenten ate well. Actually, she asked the same question of you."

He glared. Some of the brightness fled her eyes, but in surrender, not insincerity.

"Oh, very well. She's gone to bathe. But I'm not lying to you, Neji," Ino told him. "When Lee mentioned you had left the house to train, she wanted to know the second you came back. I didn't know you had, or I'd have gone to tell her myself."

The notion that Tenten had asked after him took him by surprise, but he forced it to the back of his mind. "So the bathhouses, then?" he queried. "She is there?"

"No, that's for the others. She bathes in the hot spring."

"What hot spring?" He could not recall ever seeing such a thing inside the compound's walls.

"It's beyond the cemetery," Ino informed, "hidden by the tall grasses and trees. As you may know, we do not disturb nature there, and Tenten is well in her privacy. She is the only remaining Long left, and the only luxury we have insisted on leaving to her alone is that hot spring. No one makes use of it except her."

Neji inwardly cursed as he realized he would have to wait. He couldn't very well—

"Why? Is there news?" Ino watched him thoughtfully. "One of her everlasting orders is that she should be called upon if something important occurs. If it concerns the Uchiha, I would recommend you go to her at once and let her know. She just came around," the younger woman reminded him sharply. "I would rather have her angry than depressed, of course, but I'd _prefer _to keep her in good spirits."

Neji nodded. "I'll go to her then." Pivoting, he went for the door but stopped dead in the frame. "Ino. What kind of flowers did you use to decorate Gai's grave?"

He did not look around but easily heard Ino's soft response: "Lotuses. His favorite." Her tone carried a hint of a question.

But he would not answer that question. "Thank you." And Neji flew from the room.

* * *

He found her easily using Ino's directions. There was a small fire that threw a warm, golden light over half the hot spring. Tenten was just beyond the firelight's reach, and the only thing Neji could see upon drawing closer was a silhouette, kept dark because the trees were too thick for moonlight to pierce through them. 

She reacted within seconds of his approach. "Who comes?"

An unnamed sensation swelled within him when he heard the healthy tones in her voice, strong and full. He almost took too long to reply, his relief was so great. "Neji."

The uncertain wordlessness between them was nearly palpable. Then there was the liquid sound of water shifting with her movements. He stood behind a tree to try and give her privacy, but she did not move from the unlighted region of the hot spring. "What is your news, Neji?"

Neji had not realized how much he had wanted to hear her speak words meant for his ears. He could not recall the moment when his name on her lips had become so very important to him.

This time his silence was too long, and her syllables took on an edge. "I assume that your presence here is a result of you having something to tell me."

"Itachi." He decided to talk to keep his mind from wandering. "Shino and Kiba came to me and said they saw someone who may have been Uchiha Itachi. They said they were not sure, but they seemed more certain than that. And I thought you deserved to be told first-hand. I would not intrude—"

"Uchiha Itachi? Near this compound?" Tenten seemingly thought nothing of the fact that he was standing less than ten feet away from her fully nude body. "But how is that possible?"

He did not know what to say to that, so Neji kept quiet. Her question had returned to softness at the end. He pressed a hand to the rough bark of the tree. "If you wish, I will go and meet with Lee. We can devise a course of action."

For many moments only the sounds of night served as a reply. Then Neji could hear water moving again. Her response was carried over to him by a warm night breeze. "If Itachi is alive, then Gai was right, and I did not heed him. I was too concerned with the dead to remember those who still live under my word."

"No," Neji said, desperation rising.

"And now Sasuke and Itachi both will come, and we'll be destroyed."

"_No_!" Lunging out from behind the tree, Neji stood in the open air and found her in the water. At best he could only see lines of her, the slope of her shoulder and the dip of her nose. But he heard the ragged way she breathed and knew her heart raced at the same speed his did. "Do remember the night we met?" Not waiting for her to reply, he barreled on. "You wore that dress from the Empress – Tsunade told me. You were almost unbearably beautiful." He heard her sharp intake of breath. "But no matter what I thought of the way you looked, it was your eyes that stand out so well in my memory. Your eyes and your words.

"You spoke to me so fiercely when I first questioned your place. You told me of your family in a way I could never have told of my own. Everything you said only confused me at first, but now it's all become clear." Neji shut his eyes, the sight of the world too much for him in this moment. "I would do anything for this clan. I believe it is what my father felt during the days before his death. And you…I would do everything for you."

Everything seemed louder to him now and colors were brighter when he reopened his gaze. Tenten, he saw, had slowly traveled into the light of her fire as he spoke. Her skin was golden, gleaming in the water, set off by the dark of her hair, which clung loose and damp. Arms crossed over her chest, she tilted her head to one side. Steam from the spring rose around her in shimmering silver coils. Her face looked at though it had been bared; there was wonder in her eyes.

"Neji…" She continued forward. At one point, Tenten reached an arm out to him. He responded by stepping toward the edge of the spring until he could feel heat rush over his face. "Why do you say these things now?"

"I cannot but speak what I feel as I feel it," he told her honestly. Understanding entered her expression, but she did not smile. "Shall you?"

"I shan't admit what I long to." Her answer had strength, though she began to tremble from something Neji knew not to be cold. "I will die on an Uchiha's sword before I am broken by you."

His head was shaking before she had finished her vow. "Enough," he murmured. Madness, he thought fleetingly, was driving him, or some other emotion he was not familiar with. "Enough now."

Tenten did not express astonishment when he stepped down into the spring, fully clothed. She only went to him, as he had somehow known she would, and answered his need for embrace with her own. Tension tightened in his stomach, but Neji exalted in it.

And when his lips met hers in the water, it felt like a fusion taking place. He kissed her with the desperation he had felt for years, jerking sharply when she reached for his clothes but did not stop her this time. Desire like hunger made him ache, and Neji thought she was stronger than he, that if presented with the choice, he would surrender all he had and ever knew to be able to stay like this, wanted by her.

Cradled by hard rock at his back and her softness in his arms, Neji made the only surrender he could tonight.

He gave himself up to her.

* * *

Her fire had dwindled to only faint flickers of heated wood by the time they had come out of the warm water in favor of cool grass, and their pants had regulated to more even breathing. Tenten lay tucked against his bare chest, the scent of her hair rich and pleasant to Neji. One of his hands rested on the curve of her waist, fingers splayed over the skin there.

Tenten was the first to speak, defying the night's lasting silence.

"There will be death," she began, and Neji's fingers tightened on her for an instant, but only that. Her whispers grew thick with emotion. "If I have to die…"

But like most leaders, Tenten left her wish untold.

_To Be Continued…_


	16. I Will Become

**Author's Notes: **_So this chapter is something of an affirmation/transition, and I'm sorry if it is slightly boring in comparison to the rest, but the truth is I am going out of town this weekend and wanted to make sure you readers got your well-earned chapter. That's why it's a Thursday update! Your feedback has been splendid – and by that I mean it has been remarkably intelligent, if not always positive. I appreciate that. Thank you._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Sixteen

By Nessie

"Do you think I would be able to look at you and not know you have loved?"

This was all Neji's excellent ears could hear before he entered the dining hall in the Long compound's main house. Lee, the inquirer, looked up from Tenten's focused, brown eyes as he approached. The Chinese warrior managed an expression of dubiousness before his wide eyes began to glow warmly, as though something had just been decided upon in the depths of his mind.

Neji experienced the awkward blend of feeling extremely uncomfortably and highly relieved, while a segregated part of him cared nothing about what Lee thought. It was Tenten, anyway, who held his immediate attention.

She didn't meet his eyes – that was fine with him. He had known she would not, just as he knew how desperately she wanted to do so. It was a thing Neji felt she would never be broken of, the constant caution, her sense of self-deprivation.

He understood it now, all of it, but this comprehension was just as painful as it would have been were he to yet understand absolutely nothing.

"_You realize…we cannot speak of this." Tenten donned the loose sleeping garments she had brought with her to the hot spring. Neji watched as she pulled her mahogany hair out from beneath the collar of her shirt, the long strands still damp from sweat and spring water._

"_Of course."_

"_This clan's leader or not, I am still a woman, and one without a father." She spoke as though he had not answered her. "My honor can be taken away, compromised. And you are Japanese. There are those old enough to think I should show favor to natives—"_

_He forced her into silence by taking one of her shoulders into his right hand and bringing her gaze to his with his left on her cheek. "I know," he murmured, not loudly, but hard enough to reach her._

_Tenten's face bore doubt. "I do not wish to burden you."_

_The earnestness in her voice made Neji hesitate. But it was only for a moment, and then he ducked his head to catch her lips in a lingering kiss that seared and cooled him at once. They stayed like that for several, eager minutes even as the moon began its declin, back down to the earth. He then released her to turn and head back to the main house to avoid suspicion._

"_Tenten," he called to her. His pearl-like eyes did not look around, but he felt her staring at him. "Your love is no burden."_

_Tenten did not reply. Neji left, undaunted; words were not needed._

"Welcome, Neji," said Lee as the Japanese man sat across from them at the table.

"You sent for me."

"Yes." Lee's smile ebbed as he breached the subject of priority. "As we all know already, Itachi is on the move. Kiba and Shino were seen by him last night. That makes no difference. They did not engage him in combat, and both Itachi and Sasuke know where we are." He turned to the clan leader beside him. "My question is, what would you have us do, Tenten?"

Tenten looked gravely thoughtful for several moments before speaking. "There is not any point in trying to obtain the element of surprise by attacking them first. Our role in this madness has never been that of instigator. I would say we should wait them out, but…" Now she did look at Neji, though her regard of him belonged to a leader, not a lover. "What do you think, Neji?"

It felt _good_, he had to acknowledge, to feel needed now. One of the largest differences between Japan and China, he thought, was that here his opinion had value, whereas at home any thought he had ever formed was regarded in the same way he had always been – worthless. "I agree." He nodded, a coil of ebony hair falling over his shoulder with the movement. "Yet we should not just do nothing. It is the time for you to strengthen your defenses. Focus less on training and form an escape plan, in case it should become necessary."

"Escape?" There was a somewhat affronted quality to the woman's tone.

"We've no way of knowing what Uchiha Itachi's method of attack will be, or whether he will even attack us at all. It is best to assume the worst. Ruling out a massacre, he would only be able to attack the compound as a whole. It is likely he will have gathered comrades whom he promised land to as Sasuke did his clan."

"Just because they are brothers doesn't mean they think alike," pointed out Lee.

Tenten's hands formed fists on the tabletop. "Honestly, no one knows _anything _about Itachi. If he had acted elsewhere in China, the Empress's secret police would have discovered it, but Jiraiya and Tsunade have never mentioned him to me."

There was a brief pause, and then Lee tentatively queried, "Do you think they would have mentioned him to Gai-shi fu?"

Neji's eyes darted to Tenten, who, knowing he watched her, only smiled softly. "No. I would have been told."

That was the end of the suggestion. Neji could not help but feel somehow proud of her.

"It is sadly unfortunate that we do not have more information on Uchiha Itachi, nor the means of getting such information in a time which would be useful to us." Lee pushed back his chair and stood. "Waiting is not appealing to me. But I am yours always," he told Tenten with a grin, "as you know. I will speak with Shikamaru of this escape plan." The lazy strategist had begun to successfully walk some days ago.

Tenten thanked him, and her friend hurried out with his usual boundless energy. Neji and Tenten were now alone, still seating with the long stretch of table separating them.

The Hyuuga recalled how they had sat, just like this, on the night of their reunion after a decade-long absence. They had looked at enough other far differently then, and it felt both a lifetime and only an hour had passed since he had first looked at her.

On the western wall of the dining room was a set of windows. The high afternoon sun sent a stream of gentle light cascading down over the table, fading at Tenten's fingertips, her hands now relaxed upon the smooth wood. It was not the sun, however, that seemed to brighten the room, but the image beyond the main house, framed by the window.

At midday, the entire compound population was out. The gardeners who kept up the vegetables were harvesting in some places, planting in others as rich soil darkened their palms. Children as young as three were playing on the paths. Older children hauled water from the wells into their parents' homes. Chouji walked by, calling a greeting to Ino, who carried a bundle of freshly-plucked flowers. An elderly man supervised an infant's cheerful crawl over a patch of wet grass.

It was a simple scene, but Neji felt moved by it. Tenten's voice broke him from his reverie. "I am all that they have in this life."

He turned his head to observe her, saw the line of her jaw trail into the line of her neck, every muscle on the verge of going stiff. Her eyes, which he was starting to learn every aspect of, glowed not with sadness but with duty. "You are all that they need," he responded lightly.

She turned those wonderful eyes to his, and the moment was private, appreciative. "They have had loss, as I have. And they have had gain." He hand traveled forward until it covered his. "As I have."

He could say nothing, but turned his hand over and linked her fingers with his own.

"For their sake," Tenten vowed, her voice filling the hall, "I will become my father Long Tao Huang _and _Gai. It is my birthright to meet our collective destiny, be it victory or domination. I will live as theirs and die as theirs. It is my dearest hope that they will never object."

"But you will remember, won't you," said Neji as the cheerful laughter of the playing children reached them through the window, "that you will not face victory nor domination alone."

Her smile, Neji thought, could outshine any sun.

* * *

Chang'an was brisk at this time of night. Jiraiya stood on a high parapet, his pale hair waving in the wind much like the flags around him. His face was relaxed, his eyes attentive of the city outstretched before them. Many lighted windows winked from below him, the stars from above, and he felt discomforted – as though being in between that many lights like peering eyes was humiliating.

So cool outside, no one would know that inside the middle-aged man positively burned with newly-kindled flame.

So high above the unceasing crowds around the palace, Jiraiya was in relative quiet. Yet that peaceful state was disturbed with his fair-haired partner came bursting out on the parapet from the door behind him.

"What is it, Jiraiya!" There was a dull smacking sound as Tsunade's hands hit the stone edge of the parapet with uncommon strength. "I was told you had an urgent message to do with the Longs, and here I find you taking in the air!"

"There is no harm done by observing the night," he told her sagely. Tsunade only continued to seethe, her shoulders hunching in a signal of oncoming danger lest he stop bothering her with roundabout answers.

"I've told you once, you old fool, and many more times – when it concerns Tenten, you will _not _keep me waiting!"

"Very well." Raising a hand, he flicked his wrist twice, and a man garbed head to foot in cloth the color of shadows seemingly materialized from the wall to their left. "Repeat what you told to me only minutes ago," Jiraiya ordered the agent.

The agent inclined his head in the necessary show of respect. "Uchiha Itachi has returned to the east. Our sources know only that he has come from far west, perhaps from the boundaries of China's lands. His intent, too, is unclear, yet we know he has visited the camp of his brother, Uchiha Sasuke, and left them unharmed. He appeared within the Long compound's area, was spotted by the ones called Shino and Kiba. They pursued by order of Hyuuga Neji and were then seen. None of these men lifted so much as a sword."

"So no one has been hurt," Tsunade nodded, the tension in her mouth easing somewhat. "That is advantageous."

"What is not advantageous," Jiraiya cut in, "is that we are not able to deploy any help for them." He motioned for the agent to depart, and within seconds it could not be distinguished whether the unknown man had seeped back into the wall or dissolved into the dark evening. "Tenten's secrets will be kept, as we have sworn."

Tsunade folded her arms. "I feel badly toward this. Her Eminence asks, sometimes, of the young man called Long in the East." Shaking her head, she added blandly, "She knows Tenten only as the son of someone her husband once saw fit to give land to. She could have a whim, and take from that family everything they have."

"Would she be so wrong in that?"

Shutting her eyes, Tsunade breathed deeply. "She would not be wrong at all." Looking up, she met Jiraiya's concentrating stare with one of her own. "That is what I so fear."

Jiraiya allowed several seconds to pass so that the woman he worked with could also feel the refreshing effects of the late breeze. "Empress Wu Ze Tian…a woman like would either detest Tenten or adore her. Of course, the problem is she knows nothing of who the Long clan really is, nor even that they have been at battle with a Japanese clan for so long. Were she to find out—"

"Your head before mine." Tsunade smiled when the man's frown increased. "Do not be so serious."

"Tsunade, you—"

"Would sooner die that let you go alone." Stepping toward him, she overlaid his elbow with the gentle grasp of her fingers. Their time had passed, the thought no more than a chance gone by. All that was offered to them was secret police, parapets, and an Empress who preferred to act on her most sudden whims.

Perhaps it was why both of them so loved Tenten. She had all of the opportunities which they had so long been denied.

_To Be Continued…_


	17. Lessons and Reasons

**Author's Notes**: _Sorry for the short chapter, kind of a transition one. But it should answer pairing questions! And build up for the next chapter, a big one. Thanks for reading, everyone and I hope you're still enjoying._

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Seventeen

By Nessie

She watched him. In the corner of his vision she hovered, like a lost butterfly. From her place just to the left of the tent's entrance, her green eyes glittered with solemn wariness as he stretched the muscles of his legs. One of his hands laid flat against the wood of the tent's center pole – it was pleasing to discover that he used it only for balance, not support. He was almost fully healed.

This was, however, small comfort to Sasuke. Since the moment he had awoken from the sleep induced by Itachi's elbow, the younger Uchiha had felt a maddening anger course through him until he half-expected his flesh to spontaneously flame.

And Sakura had been there for almost every burning second. In that amount of time, they had exchanged fewer words than he could count on one hand, but her presence worked as a balm on his searing mind. Sasuke didn't know which was worse; having her around because he wanted her there, or having her there because he wished she wanted to be there. Feeling pathetic, the pads of his fingers pressed more forcefully to the pole under his hand.

"Sakura."

Her name…he just wanted to test it, make sure he knew how to form it with his lips and tongue.

Her eyes, attentive and intelligent, blinked rapidly as though his call of her name had woken her from a short doze. "Is something the matter?"

She was referring to the here and now. Sasuke knew this, and yet somehow the question seemed to ask after the duration of his life. She knew of Itachi's impromptu visit two nights ago by now; he had told Kabuto, Kankurou, and Gaara when they had come to his aid. Sakura had heard the news when the two brothers told Temari.

He wanted to regale her with tales of seeing his family's corpses in pools of dried, black blood. He wanted to tell her that he had grown up at nine years old, waiting until he was old enough to gather people to him and reinitiate a dormant battle. But that was all the past. The topic that kept his brain on a continuous boil was the present, and Sasuke's consisted of revenge, of hatred, and all the things that kill a man too early in his life.

With the one exception, however, of a Japanese woman who had managed to unwittingly place herself in the center of it all before he could prevent the current outcome.

"I am not as weak as this!" Part of him felt hazed and wondered who had exclaimed so desperately these words until Sasuke realized it was he. Then the anger doubled, and he thought clearly. With his eyes on the strawberry-haired woman near the door, he balled up his fists. "Why should I continue to sit and pretend to bide my time when I've no time to bide?"

She offered him no response, only inclined her head and waited.

Furious – with whom, he was not sure – Sasuke took a step toward her. "Why do you look so at me? Do you think I will not do anything to arrive at my goal?

Blood startled out of her face in such a way as he had never seen. Yet she kept her composure beautifully, folding her hands in her lap.

"If I look at you in any certain way," she replied softly, "I cannot help it. I had no knowledge of it."

"You do not require knowledge," he spat venomously, "to detest someone. That is first-hand experience I give you there."

He saw a flash in her gaze, reminding him of the capacity she had to feel when she let go, but breeding kept her in check at the moment. "I hope I have given you little indication lately that I detest you. You are upset. It is not beneficial to your health. Won't you rest for—"

"I wish not to rest! Don't you see? Resting has put me so far behind that I have put everything I have spent the past few years of my life fighting for at risk!" Chest heaving, he bared his teeth. "And you – on your Japanese ship, looking for your Hyuuga, know nothing of what it is to fight for something. Do not ask me to rest."

She all but bristled at his chilled tone. Her eyes went from wary to outright indignant. "I fought to keep you well," she countered stiffly. "Is that meaningless to you as well, _Sasuke-sama_?"

Her goading tone suddenly reminded him of Long Tenten and how she had so hatefully mocked him: "_Your wish, zhang_ _fu, will never be granted by me_."

Sasuke very nearly smiled to himself. He sometimes was confused by a woman's strength; he did not know whether to admire it or disdain it. Perhaps a bit of both was what made him so disliked by every woman he encountered.

Both Sasuke and Sakura stared at each other, the tension between them similar to fog, until Sakura's shoulders slumped and Sasuke's jaw lowered enough for him to suggest surrender. He had no idea when he had let his emotional blockade deteriorate enough for her to break through. When she rose from her seated position on the floor, his eyes followed each movement of every inch of her. He felt possessed, controlled by a force he knew nothing about.

He knew only that the desire to touch her was violently rising, making him ache with a burn unlike his anger. Sasuke found, then, that within moments Sakura was in his arms – the arms that had been useless for so long as he lay in bed – and he realized she had put herself there on purpose. The softness of her started a tremble in his legs, the scent of her hair at his cheek began a raggedness in his breathing. His hand went to her chin, jerking her face upward so he could seize her lips as readily as she accepted his own.

"Sasuke…" A wordless sound came from his throat as she murmured his name. Burying his fingers in her hair, he held her closer until he could pretend they were the same being. It was the first time he had ever felt truly a part of anything.

"Why?" he demanded when they broke for air. He could feel her breath rush over his bare neck, then saw he was not the only one shaking from the force surrounding them.

She shifted so that her head rested on his shoulder, her eyes looking away from him. "I feel unfaithful, in some ways. In others, I believe that my time with you has shown me things my life has been without since the day I was born…passion, humanity. I am a woman of knowledge, but you are a man of action." Lifting her head, their gazes touched. "Only recently have I gained the strength to act myself, and I believe you are the cause of that."

He brushed back wayward strands of her ear, astonished by the full calm in her and feeling it wash into him as well. His rage was subsiding, something he hadn't thought possible. "And you do not fear me? After what you know I have done, what I have made others do…your hate does not keep you from me?"

Sakura smiled, as though his words were the key to a secret she had been longing to share. "I have no fear for you now. Though it is true that you had experienced terrifying things, they do not make you a man such as I could ever hate."

She kissed him this time, as though to assure him that she meant every word of what she said. Sasuke ran a thumb over the curve of her cheek, felt something wet his flesh. Surprised, he pulled back and saw the tear gleaming on his hand. "Who are you crying for?"

"No one. Perhaps myself." Shaking her head, she drew breath shakily. "I did not expect to find happiness here in China. I thought if Neji were truly dead, then I would find nothing here and return home to live as a wife, or an unmarried healer. But I look for nothing anymore." Twining her fingers in his, she felt him grip back. "You have brought me my answers."

Sasuke would not allow himself to ask what answers those were. He felt ascetic being this near to her, undeserving. He had dedicated years of his life to obtaining green land, not these green eyes that looked upon him so gently.

Instead, he pulled away from her, though his entire body shouted to move closer, to keep what she was giving to him. Pressing his palm to the tent pole again, he rested his forehead against the back of his hand, his fall of dark hair coarse on the flesh. "I must return to the Long compound with my men. There, I must fight. It is the only way I will defeat Itachi."

Eyes darting toward her, he continued, "I cannot expect you to understand. I do only what I have to so this can be finished." Her face, Sasuke thought, bore the same expression he had seen reflected back at him for almost as long as he could remember. "And there is no room in my fate for me to consider your opinion of what I should do if I am to reach my accomplishments."

"Even if it means your death?"

The question threw him briefly, and his jaw tightened. "When you have been on the path of vengeance as long as I have, Sakura, death is not an option."

He thought she would leave the tent as she rejected his decision, and he started toward his bed with the mindset that he would need rest for the day ahead. Sakura stood where she was, and he felt her watching him with every movement. He trained his eyes on her, the black orbs half-hooded. "Now that I go into battle again, it seems it is only fitting that I release you from this place."

His pulse raced for reasons he could barely name, and Sakura's mouth fell open in surprise. "Release me?"

"Release you. Free you, whichever word you care for." He did not know why it was causing him a new pain, why the things he was saying would only come when forced out. "Go back to Japan, or to Hyuuga Neji, if that is what you wish. Temari can tell you how to get to the Long compound." He smirked a little, though he was not at all amused. "You can even warn them of my approach if you want."

She walked toward him with curious slowness, as though she was not entirely sure whether she wanted to be near him or not. The positive won out in the end, and she kneeled beside his bed, one of her hands rising to bring a cool touch to his forehead.

"Will you believe me," she asked, "if I tell you that I only felt imprisoned here for a short time? I have learned things here that Japan could never have taught me."

"You would be safer if you had stayed ignorant." It was odd to feel so much mingled together at once. Regret topped the lot of it now. Regret for keeping her by his side and opening himself up to developing a weakness. He thought he might be able to name what it was she made him feel, but did not dare. Saying it would bind it, make it real.

"Perhaps. But I cherish those teachings." Her fingers curled into his sleeve. "That is why I am coming with you to the Long compound."

He rocketed into a sitting position, taken aback by the unexpected declaration. "Why? When I have given you leave to do whatever you—"

"I do not know why. You have asked me why so much tonight, but I've very few reasons." Her smile returned, comforting him. "I know only that you are incorrect about me. The safest I have ever felt has been here with you, Sasuke."

"And if I die?"

Some of the light dimmed in her eyes. "Then that will be only one more lesson I will have learned."

Their kiss this time was lighter, softer, sending only a trickle of warmth through him as opposed to a flaring blaze of heat. He clutched at her in a way similar to how one tries to hold water between their hands – with fear of it slipping away.

But Sakura did not slip away. She stayed at his side – though he had refused to hope for such a thing, she stayed. She was no butterfly to him now, but a strongly soaring bird, no longer lost.

And if there was anyone he wanted to witness this coming final battle, then Sasuke wanted her to be that one.

_To Be Continued…_


	18. To Heaven

**Author's Notes:** Wow, I thought for a while there this chapter wouldn't get posted this weekend. Actually, it's fairly early! This chapter is a doozy; hopefully it will make up for the transition chapters I've been putting out. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Eighteen

By Nessie

He was sliding on armor, sleek plates of bright steel on his forearms, shoulders, knees, and chest. He to wear a helmet – it hindered his vision, and he could not have that. Neji worked very hard to not respond to the pair of eyes training on him, knowing that he could as soon drown in them as be impaled by an enemy's sword.

When Tenten spoke, however, he had no choice but to turn to her. "Why do you fight for me, Neji?"

A question he had asked himself but had not expected from her. The Hyuuga did not smile as he replied, though his eyes conveyed the lighter feeling his mouth so expertly hid. "Why do you fight for your clan?"

Her eyes widened with his meaning, but she made no sound. Outside the window of his chamber, where they were, wind chimes tinkered.

"That is why I fight for you."

Tenten's fists clenched briefly at her sides. "If I die tonight—"

His eyes narrowed because, almost imperceptibly, her voice shook. "Do not talk that way. We don't even know if there is to be a battle."

"That's not true. We do know." She approached and laid a hand on his metal-covered arm. "If I do, I want leadership given to Lee. He understand my people's lives. And you." She grabbed his hand he when he started to draw away, brought his fingers to her lips. "You, Neji, will live. Go home, back to Japan, and _live_."

"Stop!" he cried, the combination of her battle wear and her words overbearing. "Tenten, do you feel so certain of your death?"

She smiled tremulously up at him. "I feel certain of some things. That is all I require."

With gentle force, he guided her to him and lowered his mouth to hers. For a moment, she surged against him until even through the steel on his body he could feel her warmth. Neji felt the phantom touch of something wet, but when he broke the kiss to look at her, Tenten's eyes were dry.

Lee appeared at the doorway of Neji's chamber. The man's armor had even been painted green. "Are you ready?"

She turned at the two old friends shared a feeling of camaraderie. This time, Neji felt part of it.

"To heaven," murmured Tenten, "one way or another."

* * *

There was a feeling of ancientness in the air. The Long compound was not old by comparison, but everything in and around it – the trees, the streams, the soil – had known far more of the world than its owner ever had.

Perhaps that was why Tenten perspired on her normally flawless brow. She was still too young, too inexperienced to predict the future. Neji supposed the same was true of him…at any rate, he too was sweating.

He stood on Tenten's left atop the compound's outer wall, as he had had before the first battle with the Uchiha clan. The two of them and Lee, on her right, formed a formidable, if small, line. But like an iceberg, there was power beneath them. In a formation on the ground, Shino, Kiba, Chouji, Ino, Shikamaru and others – all were waiting outside the comooud, ready to take orders and fight until death. The one was missing was Gai.

Not missing, Neji mentally amended. In every strategy Shikamaru formulated, in every order Tenten gave, in each of Lee's mighty kicks…that was Gai. This clan knew it.

"Neji." Tenten's voice brought his gaze to hers. She stood beside him, his leader, both a man and woman as she seemed destined to be, as she had to be. He admired her for that. Tendrils of dark hair were already escaping from her buns and curled damply at her temples. "Do you remember when we were children?"

He let his eyes slid shut, pearls hidden from the world. "We cannot be children now."

"No." He was startled into opening his eyes again when her fingers slid over the plane of his cheek, openly, in front of all whom she loved. The smile she wore, knowing, accepting, arrowed straight into his heart. "Thank you for growing with me."

He wished to say something to her, something that would cement her belief in him, but the sound of moving feet came from the surrounding wood. "And now I do battle at your side."

Tenten nodded and, after signaling Lee, the three warriors jumped to the ground, landing on bent knee like beasts preparing to chase prey.

How fitting it was, Neji thought, that they would fight at the western wall which the sunset faced. There had never been a better time for setting suns.

"Will you let me fight him?" asked Neji, drawing Hizashi's sword as Tenten drew his. She bowed her head once.

"But I must finish it."

It was a fair compromise. The second Sasuke came into view, a well-known figure materializing from the black shade of the trees, Neji ran. The Uchiha son was nothing less than prepared, and the tune of steel on steel sang out as they came together.

A familiar sense of comfort washed over Neji as the muscles in his right arm bunched with sword memory. "Where is your brother?" The drug of battle strengthened the question.

Sasuke's brow furrowed, irritation chafing his tone. "Itachi is no brother of mine." He blocked a quick thrust and the two leapt apart.

"He's returned to you, has he not?"

"He's returned for his end," Sasuke declared cryptically. "What can you say of it, Hyuuga?"

Neji jumped high when Sasuke took a swipe at his feet. He defended with his left arm when the other man aimed a follow-up kick. "I can say the name of Uchiha is a curse upon this land of China. When you kill this long for a piece of ground never belonging to you, you are unfit for anywhere."

"I have killed for my honor," Sasuke gritted out angrily.

He could see her, Tenten broken and collapsed among falling red petals, the stain of Gai's blood striking on her white dress. Sasuke had been the cause of that. "The best way for _your _honor to arrive," he proclaimed, "is by death!"

The echo of their blades had been dimmed by the fray now in progress around them. The two Japanese men kept their focus on each other. Neji cut Sasuke's bicep but received a gash in his side. Their skill greatly matched, the duel going nowhere.

"And yet you fight to protect this land!" Sasuke panted, flicking a thumb over the corner of his mouth to wipe blood from it. "A dog of Japan, serving the master made of a Chinese woman."

Neji did not answer this time. Sasuke's eyes widened.

"What, Hyuuga? Do not tell me." He lifted his sword, going into a stance. "Don't tell me you lo—"

"_You've ruined her happiness_!" roared Neji, his white eyes blazing. He reared back and then threw his weight into his next jab. "You've tried again and again to see that she suffers and for what?"

"I don't have to state my reasons to you," seethed the Uchiha.

Reasons. They were what he and all of the Long clan had yearned for. Neji rolled onto the ground, feeling every trig and bramble, but his swordpoint came up and settled on the underside of Sasuke's jaw. Blood trickled in a thin, scarlet line down to Sasuke's collarbone. He was rendered motionless.

Neji wanted to do it. This man, what he stood for, was the source of misery Tenten had known since her birth. Why should he not rid the world of Uchiha Sasuke? Why not allow China's earth to soak up the blood of a relentless tormentor?

"_Sasuke_!"

He did not stop because of the call but because of who made the call. Neji saw, in the grove beyond Sasuke, an all too familiar woman – green eyes he had known since childhood, a face that had been replaced in his mind, which now watched him in horror.

"Neji…" The eyes turned downward sadly.

His mouth went dry. "Sakura – _ugh_!" He felt the hot gush of blood as Sasuke's blade ran over his leg. "What is she _doing _here?!" he demanded, furious with himself for being distracted. He glared at Sasuke while he applied pressure to his heavily bleeding thigh.

Sasuke's eyes glinted as darkly as the night that had fallen around him. "I don't know."

Suddenly, shouts went up from all directions, different from battle cries. Neji's comprehension of Chinese wavered for a moment until he understood without needing to hear.

"FIRE!"

Inside the stone walls of the Long compound, flames like pillars licked at the star-strewn sky overhead. Smoke rushed up in plumes, bright oranges and red flashing over both Uchiha and Long family members.

"Tente!" Neji took off, forgetting Sasuke, but catching a glimpse of cherry hair until that too fled his mind. He found her nine feet from the wall, caught her under the arms and dragged her back against him.

"No, Neji! _NO!_" She struggled but he held tightly, his armor scraping hers. "My family's graves! I have to go!" she screamed.

"And die?" Frantically, Neji caught at her chin, made her look at him. "And _die_?!" he repeated, fearing he may have gone mad.

There was no mistake of tears in her eyes now. Her cheeks were streaked with them. "If I must," she affirmed, but her voice broke.

"No. No, you won't." She tugged but he brought his bloody hand to her face, leaving reddish marks on her ear, her hair. "I love you."

He shook wildly, and she pounded a fist against his chest plate. He sensed someone approaching and both jumped to the ready, but it was only Shikamaru, his jaw scratched and his nose bleeding. "Everyone's out," he said hastily, and Tenten's grappling lessened. "You were right, Neji, about that escape plan."

"Tenten!" Ino called from their left, "The wall!"

All looked up to the conflagration above. In the exact place where Neji had stood at the start of the battle was Uchiha Itachi, his robes billowing in the wind spurring on the fire. There was a long torch still in his hand.

A shout met their ears. "_My land_!" Itachi threw the torch and it landed some feet away from them. In Neji's distraction, Tenten finally broke free. He went after her but—

"Hyuuga!" He turned just in time to clash swords yet again with Sasuke. "It's revenge! My reason!"

"And look where it's brought us," Neji retorted acidly. He tensed when Sasuke's eyes left him to target something behind him. Swiveling, he saw Tenten racing at the western wall. Opening his mouth, his cry of her name fell dead inside of him.

She tore into the air, making a graceful arc of her legs for momentum, and spun once before starting to descend. At first, he thought she had done nothing but elaborately jump. But the body of Itachi above her on the wall gave a sharp, sudden jerk, and as the he fell forward, Neji's caught sight of something protruding from Itachi's torso, twinkling like a star.

She had asked him if he remembered his childhood. Neji did.

_A dark-eyed girl with ringlet pigtails lifted a dagger from the silk belt of her dress. The tool appeared too large for her undersized hand, but when she threw it, spinning, it landed in the very center of the circle painted upon the tree trunk._

Itachi hit the ground face-down, movement a distant memory of his crumpled body. Thick, dark blood flowed into a pool beneath him.

A strangled noise came from Sasuke's throat. Neji turned to see the man go almost limp, his sword slipping from his hand to land in the grass. He looked back to see Tenten standing alone, her hair loose from her exertion. Wind tossed the brown length of it back away from her face, and she tipped her head back, the light from her home burning making her glow. Eyes closed, she dropped the sword that had belonged to Neji and simply stood there; tear-stained, windswept, and grieving.

The battle had come to an abrupt halt. Longs and Uchiha both stayed still, a large crowd of evacuated family members looking on in fright. Neji found Lee, one of his arms still posed to punch. At his feet, as motionless as Itachi, lay Kabuto.

It was not until the familiar sound of hooves tearing up earth, the snorts and whinnies of horses, that anyone moved. Tenten looked over her shoulder, and Neji turned his head to see a pack of six men, dressed in full armor upon horseback, two colored flags waving in the night.

When he came close enough, Neji saw the rider in the lead was Jiraiya.

The older man's powerful voice boomed above the whispers of people, the crackle of flames, the whispers of death. "Long Tenten and Lee, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura…" Jiraiya's coal-dark eyes met Neji's. "And Neji Hyuuga."

Tenten meandered toward him, her eyes wide and unseeing. Jiraiya continued although his face bore concern.

"You all are hereby summoned to the city of Chang'an by order of the Royal Family. You will be escorted there immediately, without delay, for an audience with Emperor Shengshen."

"The Emperor?" Neji voiced, confused. .

"Emperor Shengshen is what she proclaimed herself fourteen years ago." Lee came to stand next to him, his eyes also on Tenten in the distance. "The one who has called us is Empress Wu Ze Tian."

_To Be Continued…_


	19. Amerce

**Author's Notes**: As this chapter will show you, _Cutting Water_ is beginning to draw to a close. In fact, there is only one more chapter after this one. Nevertheless, I hope you will continue to enjoy the story! You all have been terrific readers.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Nineteen

By Nessie

Neji felt stifled, as though breathing was suddenly the most difficult of tasks. Choking him was not only the perfumed air and incense smoke in the corridor where he stood, but also the forbidding, silent exchange passing through the four other people there with him.

Tenten, on his left, stood between Neji and Lee. Her elbow, revealed by her torn shirt to be bleeding, brushed the edge of his forearm – they could not have any further contact, and neither dared look at each other.

To his right was Sakura. He could not see her well in his periphery, but he took note of the fall of hair shielding any her from any view. What he could see showed him that she was healthy and that she looked precisely the same as she had when Neji had sailed from Japan. Neji frowned at that thought and admitted that it was not true. He had met her eyes back at the Long compound and once en route to the capital. The green color of her gaze had not altered, but the light within…it had become fuller, brighter.

Uchiha Sasuke stood on the other side of Sakura, and Neji could not help but wonder, in the infinite possibilities in this land of China, if Sasuke had anything to do with Sakura's change.

Jiraiya had taken them through the city of Changan under the curious eyes of the wealthy and prominent. He had wasted no time in marching them straight to the royal palace, in which Neji felt most highly out of place. His hands were scarred, his skin cut, his clothes bloodstained. Everything around him was polished, perfect. Even the light upon the handmade wall hangings – depictions of nature scenes in China – seemed too unblemished for Neji to be worthy of even looking at it. And now Jiraiya had gone, leaving them under watch by a group of armed guards.

The palace teemed with activity, but the servants and officials whose feet could be heard scurrying every second seemed to move as phantoms, with a sort of false life. Neji's jaw clenched. A false life – how long had he led one himself? It had seemed as though he had finally met with reality in uniting with Tenten and her morals. Although, after what he had heard of the Empress Wu Ze Tian, the Hyuuga began to doubt if he would have any life at all by the time the sun rose again.

Presently, a young woman with painted, downcast eyes stepped softly into the corridor. "At this time," she announced in the small voice expected of a servant, "the Empress will see you five transgressors."

Neji detected movement to his left and realized Tenten had begun to immediately shake. He turned his gaze to her hand, balled up and quivering at her side. He took a risk, sliding the pad of his forefinger over the row of knuckles on her fist. Tenten stopped her trembling.

The five were made to follow the servant girl through a web of curving walkways until they arrived at a set of massive, exquisitely-carved doors. Two more girls joined the first, and they opened the double doors in unison so that the scene before them was revealed in the way a fruit's flesh can be seen once the skin is peeled away.

The sight of a long hall greeted them. Windowless, it was lit by rows of hundreds of flickering tapers. Silk was draped everywhere, glittering from the corners of the ceiling to the expanse of the floor. High pillars painted brightly loomed on either side of a central walking path. At the end of this path, seated on a gleaming chair of gold and ivory, was a woman dressed more finely than Neji had ever seen.

Before any of them could get a good look, a strong feminine voice sounded from behind. "You must proceed quickly."

It was Tsunade. Beside her stood Jiraiya. Both royal officials wore grim expressions that Neji disliked. In obedience, however, the five began to stride forward uncertainly. They were made to stop walking when they were within two yards of the throne.

Empress Wu Ze Tian, or what he could see of her in the little glancing he was able to get away with, seemed elegant enough to be intimidating. Slightly behind him, Neji could tell that Jiraiya and Tsunade were also in discomfort in the presence of this imperial person. Wu Ze Tian's intense eyes, dark and deep, went first to Tenten. The headdress on top of the Empress's mighty brown dripped with jade and other jewels, suggesting an incalculable strength.

When she spoke, her voice was hard in its tone but soft in its volume, giving an effect like that of flower petals trailing against diamond. "Jiraiya and Tsunade. For a decade you have served me, and since then I have never had a reason to suspect your infidelity. You have spoken quite a few times on behalf of this Long clan. And due to the confessions of a spy too burdened by guilt, I find that there is no clan of Long even in existence. Is this not true?"

Tsunade was paler than usual, Jiraiya uncharacteristically tight-jawed. "It is, my Empress," Jiraiya affirmed honestly, saying nothing of his personal opinion on the Long clan constitution.

"Not only that," continued China's ruling body, "but you lied to me about who it was I have been acting as benefactor to for nearly three years now. Long Tenten, I believed, was a man. And yet the clan leader before me is a woman whose eyes are not wholly of China. How could this possibly be?"

It was Tsunade who made to answer this time. "Your Excellency." Neji heard a rustle of clothes and knew the woman was kneeling. "As you well know, Jiraiya and I are Japanese. We know it is only of your graciousness that we stay in this land at all. Tenten's mother was a cousin of mine."

"Was?"

"She is dead, Empress."

"I see." Neji stared into the patterned silk on the floor, memorizing every dip and wrinkle in the material as his heart beat wildly with the Empress's words of Tenten. "And she and Long Tao Huang – the one I granted favor to only because my late husband personally gave the family land to the east – left behind this half-breed female."

Neji closed his eyes at the harsh words, only to open them again because the scene inside him was not the brief glimpse he had caught of the Empress's face, but one from earlier at the compound; when he had openly proclaimed his feelings to Tenten and she had responded with a fist against his chest…

"I will arrive at her judgment. For now, look at me, Uchiha Sasuke. And you, Haruno Sakura."

Neji kept his head bowed but picture Sasuke's face slowly raising to see the woman who held his fate in her powerful hands. Sakura's eyes, he thought, would lift much more hesitantly.

"You are," she declared, "two young people whose purpose here I cannot understand because, to me, you _have _no purpose here. I have known of the Uchiha conflict and left you to yourselves. In this I was perhaps too lenient?" The tone heightened at the end, sounded nearly amused, as though she thought less of Sasuke than she did of her headdress's weight. "I have had far more important people of Chinese descent murdered in secret for less. Your deaths I could order openly, have you taken to the streets, and let your blood run there to stain a lord's wife's slippers. I disapprove of you, Uchiha. You will leave China within two nights from now, or I will make good my threat.

"Haruno – your face is like that of my daughter's. But you appear more intelligent than Taiping, and younger. Every woman should be allowed one fatalistic mistake in which to live through and learn from. This will be yours."

Neji could hear Sakura dispel a long-held breath. Wisely, the green-eyed woman said nothing but bowed her head in gratitude.

There was a pause in Wu Ze Tian's dealings, and Neji wished he could watch the proceedings. He heard gently-pattering feet and a soft sipping noise. He guessed that the Empress had summoned for a drink. Presently, the Empress continued.

"Long Tenten. You will answer me with that voice you call a leader's. Your name – is it really Tenten?"

There was a swallow audible in Tenten's throat but she did not delay in replying: "No, Your Excellency. My name is Long Tai Na."

"And it is you who has led a considerable number of men for the last three years?"

"Yes."

Neji felt himself sweat. But he knew what Tenten would look like now; her skin would have grown winter-cold, her mouth taut at the corners.

"You realize that you have deceived me, your Empress whom it is said you claim so much loyalty to. It is said that China is the reason you have fought your war with the Uchiha. But a liar is not loyal – she is out for gain, for power."

Neji's hands curled on the silk below him until they were tightly closed. Even though she was the Empress, he could not fathom how such despicable inferences could be made of Tenten.

"In this respect," Wu Ze Tian went on, "I cannot grant you leniency. A woman in the forests ruling a mismatched mass predominantly made of Japanese men elder than her? It is the sort of thing that inspires uprising! It is _sickening_ to think that such lies were repeatedly told to me by my most trusted servants. And you, Long Tai Na – you do nothing but fan envy in my heart."

There was a break in Tenten's breathing pattern, giving away her surprise.

"Yes, envy." A sneer came to the Empress's tone. "And I am somehow continually impressed by you. Not only are you beautiful, but you have tricked even me into believing untruths. Whether or not that was your intention does not matter. It was done, and done successfully." There was a low chuckle. "You are not very unlike me, Long Tai Na."

There was uncertainty in the air and perhaps the Empress preferred it that way, for she moved on. "And you – the one they call Hyuuga Neji. Raise your eyes to mine."

Neji did so quickly, his obedience not from fear so much as it was from habit to do as he was told when ordered by one of authority. He could now see the room around him and Empress Wu Ze Tian without the hindrance of propriety.

She was a woman of maturity, not ancient, though her face held an array of aging lines. Her elegantly-styled hair was still pitch black, as were her eyes. The slender outline of her face and body told that she had once been an incredibly beautiful woman. That may have been how she had come to the throne in the first place, Neji speculated.

Her eyes widened somewhat as they met his own; most likely the color of his gaze startled her. "I am compelled to admit, Hyuuga, that you bring my mind only the thickest of confusion. Beyond the tale I have been told of your father and the poor history between your family and the Uchiha, I can see no reason for you to still be in China. A man returns to his native soil when he is first able, and according to my spies near the Long compound, you have had a high number of opportunities which would have allowed you to go back to Japan."

Neji bowed his head once but then returned his eyes to Wu Ze Tian's. He had no idea what to say but found that was acceptable, because Wu Ze Tian proceeded:

"I have already told Uchiha and Haruno that they are to return to Japan. I cannot afford to lose Jiraiya and Tsunade because, aside from this incident, they have been worthy servants. Thus, I must appease my necessity for Japanese blood through you."

There was a ripple of tension throughout the seven standing before the throne. Neji's teeth clenched behind his lips as he watched Wu Ze Tian motion to the leaders of her secret police. Wordlessly, Jiraiya and Tsunade came forward. Jiraiya drew his sword as he walked, and Tsunade moved to Neji's side. They could offer no dispute, he knew, so delicate was their position already. He understood that and also forgave them.

"Silk is easily replaced this dynasty," Wu Ze Tian explained. "The stain of your life can be burned without a second thought here. How does this fair with you?"

Neji's mouth loosened just enough for him to form an honorable reply. "If I must die today, I would prefer it to be in the court of an Empress."

Wu Ze Tian smirked. "You will be given this, Hyuuga. Perhaps one will be kind enough to place a pearl on your tongue once your head has been severed from your body. Then perhaps your soul, at least, will stay healthy."

Tsunade took hold of him, her grip unexpectedly strong as she angled his head downward so that the back of his neck was openly displayed. Neji managed to still watch, unblinkingly, as Empress Wu Ze Tian lifted her hand again. His mind spiked, all thoughts going instantly to the woman he had met in childhood, the woman he had loved as a man and would now watch as his life ended in her beloved country.

Jiraiya's sword went up, and then, with one exertion of powerful muscle, started to descend.

"_**STOP**_!"

Neji felt pierced air rush in cold currents on either side of his neck, but the blade did not touch him. Glancing up again, he saw that Wu Ze Tian had motioned for a halt. But it had not been the Empress's voice which had cried out in such horror.

In the next instant, warm hands that he had come to know so well were on his arm, in his hair. Tenten's scent filled him with comfort as the Long daughter placed herself on the side of him not occupied by Tsunade, looking up at the sovereign before whom they both kneeled.

"I do not know how to plead to you, Your Excellency," urged Tenten. Her eyes, as well as her voice, were wet. "But I do so now. I beg you – with all that I am; your servant, a child of China – spare this man. Let him live, and in his stead…take _my_ life!"

Neji began to move, his arms wrapping around her protectively. Tenten stopped him with the clutch of her fingers. Tsunade's gasp could be heard, Jiraiya's grip on his sword visibly blanching. Behind them, Lee made a strangled sound of fright.

"I too have Japanese blood that could appease you," Tenten elaborated even as burning tears ran down her cheeks.

Wu Ze Tian did not look amused now. She looked as though she did not recognize the being before her as a woman, as even human. "Why?" came the incredulous question. "What on this earth could move you to offer your life in exchange for a foreigner's? In all my years at the peak of this country, I have never seen so bold a move made in this hall."

Tenten shook once again, yet it was not from fear but overwhelming emotion. The explanation she gave seemed too simple to hold all of the meaning within it. "I love him."

Neji turned to look at her, but she did not take her eyes from her country's sovereign.

"Ah." The Empress had been perched on the edge of her seat, but now leaned back to study the two on the floor. "That is a reason with which I am familiar…I have seen it bring fools to their deaths, as it should bring both of you." She tilted her head to the side in apparent wonderment. "And yet, I will not kill you on this day."

Tenten's head shot upward from her spine-arching bow. Her mouth was agape, but she made no sound, as though her capacity for speech had been lost. Neji could only stare.

"I admire forceful decisions. But be aware: it is not love that relieves you. Your duty to me, Long Tai Na, has enabled you to live. For I realize that all of your transgressions have been only in service to China." Wu Ze Tian lifted a long-nailed finger. "Know, too, that you shall not go without punishment. I am not as soft as that.

"You shall relinquish leadership of your clan. Woman or not, deceitful or not, you bear blood other than Chinese. It is not comely for you to hold such a high position. Your clan will continue under the rule of your comrade, this man named Lee." The smirk returned to the Empress's face. "A pitiful clan though it is."

The Empress now stood; tall, with the remnants of beauty still abundant in her solemn face, she seemed a wicked judge in spite of her unanticipated mercy. "Amerce is dealt, and you five are dismissed from this city of Changan. May you never return here."

Tenten turned in Neji's arms. Her eyes were wide and held disbelief, as his did. After several paralyzed moments, they went to their feet together and in silence followed Lee, Sakura, and Sasuke out of the Empress's hall. Neji would not release Tenten's hand for anything in the world.

_To Be Continued…_


	20. Rebuilding

**Author's Notes**: _Well, my darlings, here ends yet another of my NejiTen tales. This final chapter is a bit shorter because I have said all I needed to say. This story was truly a joy to write and I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I hoped you would. As always, feel free to let me know what you thought of the fic – good and bad. I hope you'll come back to check out my future stuff too. I will most certainly maintain my NejiTen muse!_

_For the curious, you can find all my past works for Neji and Tenten here on Other multi-chapter fics include "Mature Intentions" and "Daring To Bleed," as well as a plethora of one-shots. In my bio, you can also find a link to "The Calendar Suite," a NejiTen fic collaboration with Goldberry. Also in my bio are links to artwork for this fic, name's Skyscape's drawing of Neji and Tenten and (most recently) a proposed book cover for "Cutting Water" by EbonyStar. However, no, "Cutting Water" will not be published in jacketed form as I've no wish to be sued by Kishimoto-san. _

_Thank you all for reading!_

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit from this fan fiction.

**Cutting Water**

Chapter Twenty

By Nessie

The stench of blood and smoke pervaded the air, yet the surrounding forest's sweet perfume eased the sourness of it. Activity livened the clearing in which the Long compound was hardly standing. Uchiha Itachi's fire had done its work. Fortunately, it was still warm and would not get cold for many weeks. There was time to rebuild. The hands of small children diligently scrubbed at blackened stone while older Long family members worked to reconstruct – hauling felled trees from the streams, packing cracked houses with mud. It was the natural course of action, to repair that which had been damaged.

The surprising aspect was that those belonging to the Uchiha clan, if not too injured, were _helping _the Longs.

"It is an agreement," Tenten was saying to Sasuke, a note of incredulity in her voice. "For your assistance, they may stay." Her arms folding, she added, "I did not believe you would do right by your men; not by me, certainly, but not them either."

"You judge me by my brother," Sasuke replied evenly. It seemed dreamlike now, the idea that these two had very nearly become husband and wife. "Though Itachi sought to harm you for your land, I did only what I weighed necessary in order to get to Itachi. Whether you believe it or not," he said, his dark eyes meeting her slightly lighter ones, "it is the truth."

"And yet," Tenten smiled as she watched her family's determined efforts, "I do believe you. It was for honor, Uchiha. That, if nothing else, I understand."

Away from them, nearer to the forest than the compound, Neji stood with Sakura, their inevitable meeting place. Their speech came more easily than either had perhaps expected. Years of friendship aided them.

"You love him," Neji said simply.

Sakura nodded. She may have blushed from the mention of love when he had last seen her, but now she held her emotion with serious dignity and without apology. "I do. And I heard her say it…I heard Long Tenten tell the Empress of her love for you." Her gaze traveled to where the woman in question stood with Sasuke. "How do you feel, Neji?"

His pale eyes took the same path Sakura's had. They trained on Tenten. "I stayed here as long as I did for her, Sakura. At first I thought I was only walking the same road my father did. But I realize that my feelings alone are not for my care for that brave woman."

Tenten looked over her shoulder, catching his look. One corner of Neji's mouth tipped upward.

"My very life is for her."

* * *

A small crowd had gathered on the white beach where a ship was docked. The old and feeble had stayed in the forest with the very young. Gaara, with Temari and Kankurou at his side, stood at the fore of the group of Uchiha. Lee led the Longs, his face a confusing blend of joy and sorrow. All watched the four people who would soon embark. 

Tenten's brown eyes glittered with the early-morning light thrown over them all, her smile outshining it. "I am glad the cemetery was not marred, Lee. It is a positive thought to leave with."

"_Must _you go?" her friend cried out, tears already beginning to rapidly form in his large eyes. "You know I would shelter you here with all that I am! And when my youth has passed on, the following generations would see to your comfort! And when _they_ become—"

"I know." Tenten halted his speech before it began uninterruptible. "But Neji must return to Japan. It is his place. And my place," she said, bringing Neji to her side with an outstretched palm, "is with him."

Neji gripped her hand, felt her squeeze back.

"But in Japan?" The question was not issued by Lee, who seemed to accept, but by Shikamaru, looking on with his usual expression of disinterest, though a glimmer of intrigue lit his face.

"You," Tenten retorted, both soft and firm simultaneously, "I charge with leading the rebuilding of our home. Expand it for your new relations. Work with her." Tenten gestured toward Temari. "I am told she is competent."

Temari sent a startled glance toward Sasuke, who nodded steadily. It took a moment, but then she nodded back before looking at Shikamaru. "I understand," she affirmed quietly.

Shikamaru regarded her with a blink and seemed to hold her gaze a moment longer. "Very well." His voice was just as quiet, as though something had come over him with Tenten's order.

This seemed to be the only goodbye Sasuke needed. Sakura bowed and was led to the ship by Sasuke, who kept a hand on her shoulder.

Neji watched all of this transpire before turning to Lee himself. "It will not be forever," he promised, extending his own hand.

Lee stepped forward to take it. "You were a blessing upon our clan, Hyuuga Neji, as Gai shi-fu often told me your father was." The two men shared a comprehension, then released. Neji felt oddly moved by the words; knowing he had made a difference.

"You will be their leader now. Do not look at me with such eyes, Lee," Tenten admonished when she too went forward to grasp hands with the much taller man. "Have you forgotten? I made a promise to Gai." Casting a particular look at Neji, she said, "I promised to have children."

Lee tenderly lifted a hand and gave his leader's scalp a brotherly rub. "I should like to see them."

"Perform a task for me, my friend. Reserve my place beside my father in this land of ours. Keep another beside mine. In doing so, you will remember that I am to return here one day." Leaning in, she embraced him tightly, the first signs of tears materializing.

It was Lee who gently stepped back, his smile broad. "For you, my Lady Long Tai Na, I will do anything. As I have always."

The green-clad youth then did something Neji had very rarely seen him do. Placing his hands together, he bent at the waist in a flawless bow. More unexpected, however, were the bows performed by the rest of the crowd, Uchiha and Long alike. Neji stood beside Tenten, his hand at her back. When everyone had straightened, she looked up at him.

"Are you ready?" he asked, not wanting to hurry her.

She nodded slowly. "I am ready to go where you will go. And not because I will be your wife, but because I wish for it."

They boarded the ship, joining Sasuke and Sakura where they stood on the port side. Chinese sailors sent by Tsunade and Jiraiya cast off, and Tenten placed her hand in Neji's to watch her beloved family shrink in the distance while ahead of her, her future grew larger.

"Neji."

Neji turned his gaze down to her, his soul filling when he saw her smile. "You will like Japan, Tenten."

She nodded, fully confident in his words. "It is not China. And I am not a Hyuuga."

"But you will be," he told her softly, leaning down until his lips were a grain's length from hers.

"You would die with me so gladly?"

"What better place to end my life," he murmured, "than where I first began it?"

Surprising him, Tenten did not respond the way he anticipated but instead pulled at the sword at her hip – Neji's old sword. The filigree caught the light and doused them in a reflected shimmer. He smiled at the antic and watched as she went to the rear of the ship.

Aiming toward her native land of China, the daughter of the Long clan swirled, the silk of her clothes waving. She gave a spectacular toss, and the length of steel flew into the air before streaking down toward the sea beneath them.

Neji held out both arms and Tenten ran, leaping at him with a grin. He caught her, his eyes closing when Tenten's lips fell whole-heartedly onto his. Their arms held each other in a way that spoke of lifetimes.

Neither saw the way in which the sword cut through the water. Both knew without a doubt that the water would mend.

They would carry on.

_The End_


End file.
